


Giving her purpose

by Ithillokte



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale, Naruto
Genre: Birthday Gift Fic, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Kagome is oblivious, Kagome takes big sister duties seriously, Kakashi will be obsessed with Kagome, kakashi is awkward, tragic beginning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:07:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 23,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27931228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ithillokte/pseuds/Ithillokte
Summary: Kakashi had only bumped into her accidentally at the market place. Naruto was taking her around and hadn’t noticed that he was there in his exuberance to help her, a new girl apparently. But she felt different and acted different. Her and her little brother. He didn’t think anything of it, at first. But those sad, dark blue eyes haunted him for several days now. He couldn’t get her out of his head. He wanted to see her again, if only to satisfy his ever-living curiosity.Birthday gift fic for Im_ur_misconception! Happy birthday hun!
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Higurashi Kagome
Comments: 23
Kudos: 34





	1. Plopped at the Gates

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Im_ur_Misconception](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Im_ur_Misconception/gifts).



It had been two days since they had arrived. Kagome didn’t feel like leaving the room to see about looking for a place to stay, nor a way to make money yet.. Though she knew she had to, or they would be stranded, and starving. They’d appeared in a bright flash of light right outside the gates of Konoha, just as the gate guards were changing shift. Both had fallen to the ground quickly. Kagome had held her little brother in her arms tightly, blood covered them, and their clothes were ruined, but they were both physically fine. When the guards came to figure out what was happening, They’d found her with her bow of Azsuza, empty quiver, multiple bags on both their backs, and her ruined bloody school uniform. Souta only had his bloody clothes on him. She’d been crying off and on. It was horrible what Naraku had managed to do, to steal from her! He almost got Souta too!

* * *

She didn’t think he was strong enough. But he managed to find a way. He’d made an incarnation with a jewel shard in it’s head. It was a female yokai. He’d sent her into the well, and she had come out in her time. Souta was on his way back from school, and hadn’t reached the shrine yet when she killed their mother and grandfather, the shrine having been closed for repairs. Kagome had been on her way home. She had just climbed out of the well as Souta almost made it to the house. When she opened the wellhouse door, she could see the trail of blood going form the wellhouse to her home. Then she heard Souta scream from the open door of their house. The auras of her mother and Ji-can were missing, and Souta’s aura flooded with the sharp white and dark greens of fear so thick, Kagome thought he would choke on it. The evil aura leaked from the yokai in her house, after her little brother. Her stomach dropped and she felt the heavy weight of horror and dread seep into her body. She ran as fast as she could to the house, seeing blood everywhere. She slipped on it, and got up. She could hear Souta running in the house, away from something that chased him. She could hear it moving across the floor.

_Teke teke teke teke teke teke teke teke_

She saw her mother’s hand on the floor, limp, unmoving. Kagome got up quickly without slipping, and ran upstairs. There was a Teketeke, banging on Souta’s bedroom door, his terrified screams from behind it. It felt just like Naraku did. There was a trail of blood going up the stairs. At his door, there appeared to be the upper torso of a woman, but her face was like an Oni, her skin was dark blue, with veins running everywhere. Long black hair clung to bloody clots on the torso, and she was trying to use a sickle to break down the door. Souta had put his chair sideways at the base of the door, to keep it shut, as she screamed and made noises that tormented him. He was terrified in his room. 

Kagome knew what this yokai was. She was terrified, but she refused to let this thing go after her brother. She whipped out her bow and notched an arrow. She aimed at the yokai, and fired. It poofed into dust. The scythe fell on the floor, and the jewel shard sparkled innocently on the floor. She kicked the scythe away from the door, and reclaimed the jewel shard.

“S-Souta! It’s me Kagome, I killed it, it’s safe to open the door, but don’t look around, there’s blood everywhere. A-and Kaa-san… Ji-chan!” And she fell sobbing to the floor, her hands shaking, her bow falling. Souta slowly opened the door, his aura the wary orange in color, checking to see if it was her. She was covered in blood. Their mother’s blood. He knew. He’d seen her. Slipped on the blood, and into the puddle himself. That thing was trying on her legs after it had killed their grandfather in the dining room.

“S-sis! Kaa-san, Ji-chan! They’re…” He ran to his sister. His aura turning to a grey- brown mix in color. Tinges of deep blue were visible for a split second at times. The color of confusion, and unsureness mixing together with tinges of deep sadness. She knew it would only get stronger with time.

“I know! I know! I’m so sorry, if only I had come sooner!”

They sat there sobbing for a while, scared, grieving, and horrified. Souta left his sister’s arms, and threw up in a potted plant. Kagome followed suit. She knew they couldn’t stay here. Naraku could reach Souta here, and she had no way to protect him. She knew what she had to do.

“Souta, come on, we can’t stay here, it’s not safe, but we need some things. Get your biggest bags. We need to fill it and my backpack. I’m Sorry Souta, but we can’t come back here ever again. The police wouldn’t believe that a Teke Teke murdered Kaa-san and Ji-chan. We need to gather things for you to travel with. That also means that we need to take care of-of… we need to gather everything, and then burn the house down. Then we disappear. This is going to be the hardest thing we have to do. I want you to gather all your school books. I will gather mine, and we will be taking more than one bag back. I’m sure Inu Yasha will help us bring everything up once he hears what’s happened. 

I want you to pack all of your clothes, roll them and use the vacuum bags. Keep some separate to change into. I will be doing the same. We need to bring the pump. Bring both your sleeping bags, you’ll be using them inside eachother at night. Pack all your hygiene things in the bathroom. All the extra toothpaste. I need you to pack everything you can. Don’t bring electronics, there is no electricity back there. We need to go though Ji-chan and Kaa-san’s rooms, find things that are both sentimental for us to keep, and then valuable that we can sell. We will need it. You start on that, and I will go take care of some things downstairs. I got the food covered, alright?”

  
Souta nodded, and moved back into his bedroom. He found a big duffel bag and began filling it. The shock had settled in. He performed automatically, gathering everything Kagome had said to gather. He pulled out his rolling luggage case too. He hoped it would be useful.

* * *

Kagome had moved downstairs, and kneeled in the giant pool of blood around her mother, and gently brushed her hair out of her face. Her face held it’s open eyed, shocked terror. Kagome gently closed her mother’s beautiful brown eyes for the last time, and smoothed her fingers over her face. She did this lovingly, and told her she loved her. She told her that she would take care of Souta, and that she was sorry for letting this happen to her, that she wasn’t strong enough to protect her. 

“Kaa-san, I’m keeping your ring for me and Souta, cause we will need it. I’m taking all your jewelry too. We will need it where we are going. We’ll be okay, so you can move on in peace. I need to burn everything. There can be no trace of me and Souta, so they don’t go looking, or questioning my friends here. I’m gonna make sure it’s a fire that burns everything. Consider this your funeral pyre. We will never forget you, and all you’ve done for us. We love you.”

Kagome then found the legs a little ways away from her body, and used a sheet to tie them back together, so that a full body could be burnt. She moved to her Jii-chan, who was past the kitchen in the sitting room. He had died with his sutra in his hand. Kagome’s hand shook as she removed them, and put them into her pocket. She would learn these, and make them useful. She smoothed his hair back, the strands and his face being coated in the blood on her hands. She kissed his forehead, and her tears washed his face of the dried blood that had splattered all over it. 

“I’m sorry gramps. I came too late. Some priestess I am huh? I’ll learn these talismans, and figure out why they never worked. I’ll make them work, I promise. I’ll take the scrolls from the storehouse that you said would help me grow. I’ll be better, I promise. I’ll make sure Souta learns them too. I’m taking the locket you have of you and grams. And I promise to eat all the historical pickles I can. I just wish they were filled with as much history as you!” Her voice wavered at this.

“I’m sorry, I love you. I’ll never forget you. I’ll do my best moving forward and make you proud!” She sobbed. She grabbed the matching sheet from the closet that she had used to wrap her mother’s body together in one piece. She carefully placed them side by side in the livingroom. 

Kagome not only cleared all the non-perishable food from the cupboards, but she also made sure to grab her mother’s recipes, especially the hand written ones. Those were the family favorites, including the ones from her father’s homeland. She put these into a large zip bag to make sure they stayed protected. She took her mother’s good cooking knife, and paring knife. 

She then grabbed the photo albums, all of them, and piled them into her bag. She grabbed all the arrows available at the shrine, bundling them with twine in quiver sets, before tying them to her bag. She went to the storage sheds out on the shrine, and gathered all the scrolls on the subjects her grandfather had ever mentioned that held meaning to Miko and Saishi. She went into the shrine proper, and bowed, praying for forgiveness for tainting such a holy place, and explained that her family, the servants of so many generations were killed, and this place was no longer holy and safe anymore. She asked the Kami to go free and be happy, and apologized for leaving them.

Leaving the shrine, she made her way upstairs. Souta was almost done in his room. She moved into her grandfather’s room, and took all the traditional clothing, knowing she would need it. Souta would need some clothing as he grew as well. She grabbed all of her grandmother’s things that her grandfather kept, knowing there was nothing else of her. She moved into her mother’s room next. She almost sobbed. She grabbed all of her mother’s jewelry, storing the pieces that had been passed down separately from the things she was going to sell. She kept her father’s wedding band and put it on a spare chain her mother had. 

She slipped the chain over her neck. She grabbed all her mother’s combs, pins, and clips meant for traditional hairstyles. Her mother loved dressing up. The amount of Kanzashi pieces she had were a testament to that. All the modern pieces she kept in a zip bag, but the pieces she had stored so very carefully in a lacquered box, those were from her wedding day. She tucked the box under her arm, and went into her room looking for another bag. Her big yellow one could hold no more. She returned to her mothers room and opened the safe in the closet. She took all the metal things, things that could sell for coin, and their identification, Passports, birth certificates, government issued ID. All of it, for her entire family. She would leave no traces.

She would burn these later in the fire when they got to the feudal era. She checked on Souta, he was in the bathroom, working on his things in there. His aura was more grey and blue now, the brown leaving his aura slowly. 

“Souta, I need you to check both Kaa-san’s and Ji-chan’s rooms for anything you might want. I’ve grabbed all the really important things already. I’m not sure if there is anything you want from them.” She watched his shoulders shake in a grief filled sigh, his aura a deep blue around him, obviously holding tears back. She steered him to their grandfather’s room first, and he picked the rosary from the corner of his bed. 

‘Good choice squirt.’ 

Souta then went into their mother’s room. He took the fan she always wore when she dressed up for festivals. The one their father made for her. Kagome almost choked at the reverence he treated it with. A flare of strong Pink-White flashed through him when he had seen it. She could tel how much he loved Kaa-san, and how much this fan meant to her.

‘I almost forgot about that. How could I forget about that?’ Kagome nodded at him when he looked to her for her approval. She raised a hand to her mouth and muffled a sob. Souta seemed to fall apart as she did. 

“Come on,” she said with a sob, “We are almost done. I just gotta go through my room, and grab everything from the bathroom. I already cleaned up a bit downstairs. Then we gotta put oil everywhere. More than oil. Anything that burns easy. We’ll trail it outside, and start it there. Think you can help me find stuff to burn the house with?”

Souta choked on a sob himself, and nodded. More deep blue was apparent in his aura from the last time she saw him a couple hours ago. The shock would be gone soon.

She let Souta finish in the bathroom, and packed up what she needed of her room. All her school books went into her bag. She’d finished Middle School, and High School already. The shard quest had been going on for almost a full two years. She would make sure Souta finished it too. And she could teach the village children afterwards, and improve the village overall. She rolled and packed up her clothes, using vacuum bags to help reduce the space her clothes and other soft items took up, including the traditional clothes. She then packed anything sentimental, especially from her father.

She had found Bouyo under her bed. After crooking her finger, and his refusal to still come out, she went and got the treat bag, shaking them in her room. He came right out for them. She had finished her room ,and packed up whatever she had in the bathroom, including all the feminine products, and any extra cleaning supplies, all the shampoos, conditioners, soaps. Even Kaa-san’s and Ji-chan’s. She emptied the medical supplies from all the places it was stored in the house. When she was done, she saw that Souta had pulled out paint thinner, the canola and vegetable oil, the finishing oils used to keep the floors of the shrine smooth and shiny, some varnishes full of fumes that would easily ignite, and a can of gasoline.   
  
She grabbed the cat, and stuck him in a carrier, and stuffed him in a bag, with the rest of the bag of food he had left. She could hear him meowing, very unhappy. He thought he was going to the vet. They brought the bags to the wellhouse. Kagome took a permanent marker, and altered the sign on the Tori gate. 

_**‘Closed: Indefinitely. Hours will no longer apply. Thank you for your patronage.’** _

Kagome started at the top of the house, spreading the paint thinner, then the varnish, and gasoline throughout the top of the house. She made sure the windows were all shut. She worked quickly. She didn’t want to breathe in fumes. She covered everything. The walls, the furniture, the carpet. She trailed the last of the gasoline downstairs, and started using the oils. She poured it in thin streaks over everything, especially over her mother and her grandfather’s bodies. She spilled it up the walls, all through the kitchen, and inside the cabinets. She poured it on the furniture, appliances, table, counters.. Finally, she trailed it to the door.

She took the lighter they used to light the hotpot burner, and sent Souta to the wellhouse. She refused to allow him to regret this as one of his actions. She would bear the guilt of this alone. With a shaking hand, she lit the lighter, bent, and set the one line ablaze, then began running to the wellhouse. It took less than fifteen seconds for the flames to reach the fume-filled second floor, and blow all the windows. The fire was hot, and it quickly incinerated the house, and the corpses within it. She could hear sirens blaring already, and she had just shut the wellhouse door when people started coming up the steps to see what was going on. 

She locked the wellhouse from inside, and had her brother grab all the bags he could lift. She grabbed what she could carry. Her backpack, a duffel, her bow and quiver. Souta had a large duffel, and his biggest luggage case, which was almost taller than he was. He grabbed his sister’s hand, holding the luggage over the rim of the well, hanging it inside. The both leaped at the same time, and both fell through the well, to the past. She hoped Inu Yasha was waiting.

* * *

He had been. He was waiting rather impatiently, and he knew something was wrong when Kagome came back after only a few hours in her time. The the smell of blood hit his nose. It was her mother and her Grandfather’s blood. He was in the well giving her a hug, and wrapping Souta in his arms as soon as he noticed him there too. Kagome cried. She broke down and cried so hard. Inu Yasha caught the scent of death, Naraku, nasty ass chemicals, and smoke on her. His aura turned from the annoyed red-orange to the yellow-orange of worry.

“What did you do? What happened?”

“You member th-the story of-of Teke teke?”

Inu Yasha’s eyes went wide. “He sent one to your house?! And it killed your mom and old man?! How dare he! That bastard! I’ll fucking kill him!” And he pulled her even tighter against him. He grieved for them too. But his heart ached most for Kagome and Souta. Deep blue sadness swirled alongside the yellow-orange of worry.

“We gr-abbed e-everything of v-alue to us, th-the most impo-ort-ant things, along w-with clothes and what not, and th-then I used all the flam-mable stuff in the h-h-ouse. I splashed it ev-erywhere, and then set it on fire! W-w-e couldn’t bu-ry Kaa-san a-and Ji-chan ‘cause the police woulda found th-em, then looked for u-us. S-so it was bet-better if it see-emed like w-we all died in a fire!”

She sobbed and tried her best to get everything out. Inu Yasha still understood her. “I’m so sorry Kagome! Lets get you guys to the village. We ain’t going anywhere tomorrow. This is too much.” He had them grab onto their bags, then grabbed both of them before leaping out of the well.

That’s when all hell broke loose. Naraku had stayed downwind, but his aura had been sensed by Miroku and Sango nearby, who were already on their way. He pounced on them, Hakudoshi and Kagura being sent to keep the others on their way there, distracted. Of course Naraku gloated.

“Who’s this? He looks just like you, Kagome? Your younger brother perhaps? And here I’d thought she’d get all of them. She was good and loyal to the cause.” His wicked smug smirk and tone made her sick to her stomach. She notched an arrow, and stood in front of her brother. The usual black and dark purple of deceit lived in his aura. There was dark red, a brighter red, a dark green mixed with a khaki green. Those were new. 

‘He better hate me, be angry and disgusted at me, cause I’m going to kill him! He’s not touching my brother!’

* * *

Kagome managed to keep her brother safe. She’d thrown up a barrier without realizing. Sesshomaru arrived, as did Koga and his pack. Kanna and Kagura had been taken out by Sesshomaru and Koga, helping Miroku and Sango greatly by giving them only one of Naraku’s minion’s to focus on instead of two. Shippo had found his way to Kagome, and helped to protect Souta, especially since he knew something bad had happened to her family. Kagome had never returned so quickly before, nor covered in blood. When Hakudoshi was finally dead, Sesshomaru, Koga and his pack, Sango, and Miroku made their way to Kagome and Inu Yasha. Kagome was clearing demons by the droves. Sesshomaru could tell what had happened to Kagome and Souta already, a single sniff gave him his answer, and he grew even more angry. This creature was vile and had no honor what so ever. 

The battle became more and more clear, just who was winning. Kagome kept Naraku in the clearing with them by using arrows spaced around him to create a barrier. She pulled one of her grandfather’s talisman’s and filled it with her Horiki. The paper became rigid and sharp. She threw it at Naraku, relishing in his screams. It kept him from regenerating so quickly. Sesshomaru, Kagome and Inu Yasha teamed up with a single strike, and gave Naraku a finishing blow, after Miroku had managed to take a good half of Naraku into his Kazana. It was a near thing. Kagome had to purify Miroku to keep him from passing on from the amount of Miasma he had taken into himself. Sango had a broken arm, and several gashes. Kilala had been poisoned, but it was easily curable. Koga had lost a couple more wolves, and his beta’s were both injured. Sesshomaru had sustained a little damage on his tail over his shoulder. 

Kagome had made the final blow with her arrow, and she’d learned from the last time she aimed for the yokai around the Shikon. She aimed a little lower instead of right at it. Kagome didn’t want to move away from Souta, who was clinging to her leg, terrified out of his wits. Kagome picked up her bags, Souta was still wearing his, and put her bow over her shoulder. She had used all the arrows from the shrine and in her quiver. She was trying to kill two birds with one stone, and purify the jewel before they went to the village. Inu Yasha picked up the jewel, and handed it to Kagome. She began to pour her Horiki into it, purifying the demons in the jewel, and amping up Midoriko’s power, making sure there was no more evil. The jewel dissolved and a bright light flashed across the clearing. When it cleared, Kagome, Souta and their bags were gone.

They appeared in front of a large wall with a gate. The people guarding the gate came to them as soon as the light had died down. Bright, pigmented orange covered them from head to toe.


	2. Becoming Clan Higurashi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Explaining to the Hokage about something like this was never easy...

Kagome could see the shock in the men in front of her. When everything had landed and stopped moving, she looked over Souta to make sure he was alright. When she confirmed that he was okay, she looked up at the men rushing out towards them. They had weapons in their hands, and the way they moved also told her that they knew how to use them. Kagome helped her brother stand up, and both held their hands up. They surrounded by orange.

“Are you injured? Do you need medical treatment?” The one with the bandages over his nose asked.

“I don’t think so, I just checked my brother. The most I have are scratches and bruises.”

“I-I’m okay.”

They were brought to the ‘Hokage’s office’. They had no idea what that meant. This Hokage, and those people. What were they? They moved absolutely silently. Bouyo mewed desperately in the carrier inside their bags.

“It’s okay Bouyo! Your not going to the vet and the fighting is over. But you’ll never see Ji-chan and Kaa-san again. No more tuna, Bouyo. I’m sor-” Souta ended up cutting himself off with a sob. 

Kagome stopped walking and held her little brother, trying not to cry herself. The men from the gate paused for a bit. They kept silent, but their gazes and gestures allowed them to speak to each other. These two looked like they had been through war on the front lines. And their conversation with the cat in their bags somewhere proved that they had just lost everything. They certainly weren’t Shinobi. Then what was this energy surrounding them? Massively from the girl, and just a little in the boy. They let them try to get themselves under control before continuing to guide them to the Hokage. Their auras turned to the yellow-orange of worry. The cat continued to meow, and the four guards wondered how either of them could carry such large bags so easily.

After an half hour of walking, Souta was getting tired. He wasn’t sure he could keep going. These bags were so heavy. He was starting to fall behind. 

“Sis, I’m not sure if I can make it, I don’t think this place we are being taken is even close yet.”

Kagome looked at her brother and chewed her lip. “I wish Inu Yasha was here.” She tried to take the heavy backpack from Souta’s shoulders, and almost buckled under the weight of it. “You have a lot of heavier things than I do. You didn’t pack those electronics like I said not to right? There was no electricity in the past. No way to plug them in!”

“I didn’t! I grabbed the old silverware, you said there was a blacksmith right? He could have coated your weapons in silver. I heard you talking about it with Inu Yasha, so you could fight yokai better. There’s no use for it in the house anymore, and I wanted to bring something useful!”

Kagome froze for a second, her face contorted with grief, and her eyes pooled with tears. She fought them back with a mighty wave of her will. 

“Your so thoughtful, Souta. I never thought of that. I’m proud of you” Her voice was thick with the emotions and held back tears as she tried desperately not to cry.

The shinobi around the two looked at eachother. Orange became more dominant in their auras again. Yokai? Biiju? They fought yokai, and won? Silver helped against them? They seemed more guarded against anything they might pull. There was something going on here, and it was important. Kotetsu stepped forward, and so did Izumo. 

“Let us help you with your bags. They look very heavy.” Little threads of white and blur pushed through the orange and yellow.

Kagome looked at them. “Please don’t take them from us, it’s all we have. We will need them if we are ever going to be able to find somewhere to live.”

The four warrior men looked at her. “You have nothing to fear Ma’am, we just want to help you get to the Hokage’s office. It’s quite a ways away, and neither of you look like you’ll make it there.” More blue and white bled through the two near her.

Kagome blinked. She would have to give them their bags if they wanted to get there, in one piece. She sighed heavily, looking worried at her bags. She gave them the heavy duffel bags, and bulging backpack. Souta followed suit, looking worried as well. The men around her wondered why. They wern’t going to steal anything. Look through them for anything dangerous, maybe, but steal them? No. They had honor. But this was also a unique situation. These two may have come from a place where stealing may have been a problem. Kotetsu checked out how the rolling luggage worked, finding it much better to carry anything heavy in. Souta snorted in amusement, and Kagome gave a sad smile. They made their way to the Hokage tower. Kotetsu and Izumo used the shinobi sign language to communicate without making their current charges worry.

‘What do they have in these bags! They are really heavy. How did they not topple over or get crushed?’ Kotetsu started.

‘They may have had to escape from somewhere, and took everything they could from their home. It looks like they are carrying their life on their backs.’ Izumo responded.

‘Well that’s horrible. They lost their family, and were forced to leave. Something bad must have happened.’

‘Yeah, that blood isn’t theirs. That could be really bad. This whole situation is strange. I hope we will be informed about what happened later. I have a feeling that these two got forced to do something awful. The girl more than the boy. Her movements and body language says she’s protective of the boy.’

‘Well, shit. I hope the Hokage is willing to help them out.’

‘Me too, but we don’t know anything about them.’

‘Yeah. I don’t think they are enemies though.’

* * *

They’d made it to the Hokage tower, and then up the steps. Kotetsu stumbled a bit at the initial weight of the rolling luggage when he had to lift it up the stairs. Kotetsu and Izumo left the sibling’s luggage with them while the night shift’s watch stayed with the two unexpected guests of Konoha. They had to report what little they knew about them and what happened. Ten minutes later, the Hokage asked for the paperwork to be cleared from his desk, and for the basic paperwork that goes into a file, citizenship files, and some blank paper. His aura had taken on an orange-yellow, with a hint of light purple. What he was hopeful for, Kagome had no idea. The assistants balked, and moved at the authority in his voice. These two siblings must be something really special. Kagome’s heart was hammering in her chest. She hoped he wouldn’t consider them a threat, or have them killed for some sort of unknown trespass.

All four guards brought a bag each into the room with them. The Hokage dismissed them then. 

“Ah, I hear that there is quite a story behind you two. My name is Hiruzen Sarutobi, I am the Hokage of Konoha. I believe that the both of us have many questions for the other. I propose a trade of information then. I have a feeling that you cannot go back to where you came from, and will need a place to call home. May I have your names please?”

At this, Kagome’s shoulders lost some of their tension. His aura was good. The core of it being light green and orange mixed light blue. Content and curious. This was a good thing. So far. “A-actually, I think I can do you one better. And it’ll help lend credence to what we say. But first, what kind of world is this? The energy feels so weird! What kind of world did we end up in?”

“Ah, well I believe that answers a question of mine as well. You are both from a world where yokai are normal, correct? As for energy, since you haven’t felt it before, it’s called chakra. This, I believe is a world of Shinobi. Do you know what that is?”

Kagome’s eyes went wide. She knew then that if she didn’t tell the truth, that there would be some heavy consequences. “Are they the same as my world? Mine hasn’t had shinobi for over two hundred years. There is a whole history, and the story of our past would be considered unbelievable by my own people. The history books said that they were known most as shadow warriors. They were used for assassination, information gathering, watching suspicious people, and taking them out if they proved to be correctly suspicious. They were developed in defense of the soldier and samurai populace, they were very numerous, and many abandoned their masters and became bandits, raiding villages, raping, plundering, slaughtering and burning villages and their crops. 

Villages began developing special weapons that could serve two purposes, and looked like normal gardening tools in their hands, and started using surprise attacks that were quick and precise, utilizing their armor-less states and increased mobility to get in, target weak points, like under the arm, at the neck opening, or under the armored skirts of roving soldiers, bandits and masterless samurai. Over many years of this sort of thing, techniques developed, and the villagers began training themselves, trial and error, and eventually, they started calling themselves Shinobi. 

An example of a altered gardening tool, is the kunai. I have pictures in my history book. Then lords, merchants, and Daimyo started employing them. This went on for hundreds of years, through both bloody and peaceful eras. Sadly, in the seventeen hundreds, with the Meiji revolution starting the Meiji era, the need for shinobi pretty much fell off the face of the earth. Peace reigned. All the villages and clans of famous shinobi died out. We haven’t had any or needed any since.”

Kagome bent to the large duffel bag with her mother’s Kanzashi, clothes, identification, and other things. She pulled out the birth certificates, and the passports. She also pulled out one of Souta’s history books, and handed it to the Hokage. Surprised white flicked through his aura, before the green and orange of curiosity came back with a vengeance. 

“Here, I don’t think we will ever be able to go back to our world. The object that transported us in a last attempt to get rid of us is gone. Destroyed. I saw it myself. We are stuck here. And my world is a bit… well. It has to do with what happened first to me, and then to-to my family.”

Her voice wavered on the last few words. She heard Souta snuffle from behind her. He was trying not to cry too. She would do as much of the talking as she could. The Hokage looked at and then read the identification that was offered to him, and wrote down all the information on the files he was making up of them. He added a few lines as well.

**~~Country of~~ Origin: Japan. From a different world**

**City**   
**~~Village~~ of Birth: Tokyo, Matsue Hospital.**

**Family/Clan Name: Higurashi**

**Status:**

He paused here, and looked up at them. This would be the difficult part.

“That history book will tell you a lot about the basic things you need to know about us. The only thing missing from it are the yokai. They were wiped from records as we grew more and more numerous, and science started and took on a bigger and bigger role. Most people are skeptics now. They don’t believe in yokai anymore. They are just mythical creatures. This is where the whole thing gets a bit weird, but I swear on our lives that it’s true. I have the scars to prove it.”

He held up a finger to her. “Before we get to that, may I ask about your energy? It is very strange. I sense a small bit of it in your little brother over there.”

“That you do. I am pretty sure that as he grows, he will have powers similar to mine, since traumatic events can bring out powers that have lain dormant for generations. That’s what happened with us. His powers should be showing up rather soon, since the event that took place happened about a day ago. I have Horiki. Souta will too. It can purify yokai. As in kill them. It can do a lot of other things. Barriers, healing, sealing, I can help things grow, see spirits around me and communicate with them, I can see auras and know what they mean. I have been in battle. I have fought in wars. My brother has only experienced the last battle I was in, which I had no choice weather he participated or not. In fact, I stood in front of him, and protected him as best as I could. He’s never fought before in his life. I kept a barrier around him. I wasn’t even initially aware that I had raised one around him. I just wanted to protect him! He’s all I have left.”


	3. Finally Resting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They finally have a chance to actually cry about everything they've lost, and it is much.

Hiruzen sat back in his chair. A wisp of dark blue filtered through the orange-green of curiosity. He understood her pain, and let her have a few moments to gather herself again. She asked a question during that time. 

“If it’s alright, I would very much like to learn about this world, and teach my little brother, if we are allowed to live here. We aren’t a threat. It’s not how Miko and Saishi work.”

He filled in another line for Kagome’s citizen file, then Souta’s

**Occupation: Miko**

**Occupation: Saishi-in-training**

“Would you mind telling me what exactly happened for you to participate in such things?”

“Well, make sure you read the history book. It’ll help a lot.” Hiruzen nodded to show that he would do so.

She took a breath. “Well, we lived on and ran a shrine. We worshiped Amaterasu-Kami-Sama. On our shrine’s grounds were the wellhouse, which held an ancient well. From well over eight hundred years ago. At the very edge of our shrine, near the front, is an even older tree. Their names respectively are The Bone Eater’s Well, and The Tree of Ages. We thought they were just really old, and may have some sort of half baked spirit in it, and that was when we were being superstitious. Until my fifteenth birthday.”

She fiddled with the edges of her ruined sleeves, picking at the threads that wove the fabric. “ I went into the wellhouse to help my little brother with the cat. A yokai appeared in the well, and dragged me down it. When I was finally able to get out of it, I found myself five hundred years back in time. My shrine was gone. Everyone was gone. Except the well and the tree. I will say that I absolutely hate centipedes because it was a centipede yokai that dragged me down the well.” She made sure to never take her eyes from the man in front of her. He needed to know that she meant business. Hiruzen got her message loud and clear. All her body language pointed to this.

“She was after a powerful artifact that neither I nor my family were ever aware I possessed. It had been in my body all my life, and I had never known. She had the upper body of a woman, six arms, and she was completely naked. From the hip down was the body of a centipede. She was huge and ugly. I was terrified. She tried to eat me.” Hiruzen’s eyes were wide. There was no way this was true. The white-gray of shock overwhelmed his aura before it settled to the wary disbelief of orange.

Kagome could see the disbelief in his aura and face. “She had mandibles.” And then she turned and showed the giant scar that covered the most of her left side. The mandible marks were clear as day, and still very prominent. Hiruzen’s mind and aura went blank for a moment while he processed. The orange green of extreme curiosity seemed to overwhelm him. 

He stopped her from speaking a moment later. “All of you, leave us! Hokage business!”

Kagome saw all the auras around the open office window leave. They were the guards of the Hokage. Hiruzen kept his gaze on hers. His aura flooded with the white and blue of honesty, mixed with his blatant curiosity. He was showing her that he was taking her seriously. Kagome nodded at him.

“Thank you.”

The yowling of the cat they had in their bags made Hiruzen sigh. 

“You are welcome. Please tell me more. But first, please let that poor cat out. It must be terrified.”

Kagome nodded, and went to her bag, and pulled two containers from her bag, one had cat food, the other one was empty. She filled it with a bottle of water. Then she pulled the cat carrier out of her bag, and let a very fat, tri-colored cat out of the cage, and petted hi a few times. The cats confusion was apparent as it looked around the room, expecting to somehow be at the vets, or even worse, the groomers. Kagome smiled at the little thing and cooed at him.

“I need to get him a litter box. He’s really sweet, and a good cat. I didn’t have time or space to grab him one nor his litter, which would have been too heavy to carry back to the past. I was just going to use sand anyways. It’s alright Bouyo, we just needed to move. We will have a new place for you to live soon, I hope.” 

Hiruzen nodded, and sent a request for a litter box and some litter out to his assistant, and watched the cat move to the food an water put out for him. The blanket inside the carrier stank. Hiruzen motioned her to the garbage under his desk, and she dumped the contents of the carrier into it and tied the bag shut. He explained to his assistant about the carrier, and asked her to rinse it out for Kagome. Kagome retrieved a bottle filled with scented baby powder, and spread a towel under her cat while he ate. She began to rub the powder allover Bouyo, allowing it to absorb any moisture and eliminate any odor. She knew he wouldn’t mind it, and that Hiruzen would appreciate not having to smell her cat in his office for the next week. Within a few minutes, the carrier had been rinsed dried, and returned to her, with a thick lining of paper towel inside for Bouyo to lay on.

“Consider the box a gift for now. It should be here within the hour.”

She was in the office for the rest of the day. Kagome gave a very basic rundown of what had happened. Not all of the story, just the very basics, and he was fine with that. She had mentioned that the entire debacle had taken three years. Hiruzen didn’t have time for this. But he knew that there were people who would be happy to record it after listening to her. 

* * *

“-When I opened the wellhouse door, I noticed the blood on the floor of the wellhouse. It went into the house. Kaa-san and Ji-chan’s auras were missing entirely! There was a dark aura that looked and felt like Naraku, but it was too small to be him. Souta’s aura changed to the terror of fear, and I started running, and then I heard him scream. W-when I got into the house, there was, there was blood! I-t w-was everywhere! Kaa-san’s hand was limp, and I slipped in the pool of her blood on the floor. I could hear the yokai upstairs!”

She was starting to loose herself in the memory. Hiruzen had to once again pull her out of it, and was filled with the orange-yellow of worry, with thick streaks of dark blue through out it.

“Kagome, look at me. You can do this. I can only help you once you finish this.”

She nodded, and took a moment to herself, trying not to sob. She was already crying. She had shed tears multiple times throughout the day. But finally, she was here. She had gone very bare bones with the story, not being able to stomach more than that right now. Her brother was snoring. He had sat among the bags, and ended up sleeping on them. His adrenaline had gone on for so long, and in the end he couldn’t stay awake. The battle itself had taken a few hours to win, and he had been terrified the entire time. It was no surprise that he had fallen asleep. He had done well and lasted quite a while. Bouyo had curled up on Souta after eating, drinking, and then relieving himself in the new litter box. 

“Souta had barricaded himself in his room,and was using his desk chair to hold the door closed because she had a scythe. She was stabbing it through the door trying to get him, so the distance was a life saver. I ran upstairs with my bow, and killed her with an arrow. There was a jewel shard. I- remember Souta saying- saying that she had been trying on Kaa-san’s legs when he got in. Then we gathered everything we could, everything of value, things we’d need for later, and I-I…” She choked. Hiruzen’s aura once again turned khaki green, as it had multiple times today at the atrocities and torture this Naraku-hanyo bastard had inflicted on Kagome, her friends, family, and friend’s families. 

She needed a minute to calm down enough to finish.

“I tied Kaa-san and Ji-chan together with some bed sheets, and moved them out of the kitchen, because I knew it would be the easiest to get them to fully burn in the middle of the fire. Souta found everything flammable in the house. I had him wait in the well house for me. I spread all the oil we had everywhere. I used the gasoline, paint thinner, and varnish upstairs, because of all the fumes. I closed all the windows and worked backwards, so I wouldn’t inhale any fumes. I coated everything as thickly as I could. I made a trail outside, and then used one of the lighters we usually use to light the hotpot burner to start it. The moment I saw it catch, I started running for the well house. It only took about fifteen seconds for the second floor to ignite. It blew all the windows.”

She was shaken about this. She stopped for a minute, and sat down, knees to her chest while she cried. Hiruzen could see that she regretted this. She had desperately wanted to be able to bury her family, and give them the proper funeral they deserved. She wanted to honor them, and she couldn’t, because it would have placed her and her brother in danger. Sadness filtered through him entirely now.

“I took him and all of our bags to the past, I was hoping to start there, give Souta a good life. It was all that I could do. Inu Yasha helped us get everything out of the well. We were getting a good hold on everything to bring to the village, when Naraku ambushed us. That’s when I found out that he had sent the teke teke to my home to kill my family. I was just lucky enough to have been able to save my little brother. He tried to target us, but I would not let that bastard touch him. I did not move from my spot. If I did, Souta would be dead.” She spoke from her knees.

“I killed Naraku. I shot him. But at the last moment, he made a wish. Inu Yasha brought the jewel to me, and we had grabbed the bags, getting ready to walk back to the village after a long fight. Souta was clinging to my legs, terrified the moment I dropped the barrier over him. Then I purified it. I poured as much of my Horiki into the jewel as I could. This allowed Midoriko to win inside the jewel, but the yokai had one last laugh. The used the power of the well behind me to open a portal to a different world. I think they were going to send me to a much worse world than this one, but I felt Midoriko. She altered the destination at the last second of the Shikon’s existence, and we got spat out in front of those huge gates.”

She sounded broken. Worry, sadness and the light purple of hope colored his aura.

“Your story is a very long and complicated one. I cannot believe someone like you, who was raised as what we call a civilian, went through so much, manage to face it, learn how to fight back, survived and pushed through everything stacked against you, and here you are before me. I don’t think single of my shinobi alone could have done half as much as you have. I am fine with you becoming a citizen here. I appreciate your co-operation, and doing your best to tell me what you could. I will not push you for more. This is more than enough. You and your brother need to be kept secret while we find you a place to live, and introduce you to people. I will assign a shinobi to you to help you. For tonight, please stay in the tower. I will have a room readied for you shortly.”

**Status:**

Hiruzen was unable to determine what to put here. She was neither Shinobi nor Civilian. Neither was her brother. Confusion-grey filled him.

He ordered two of his body guards to guard the door of their room.


	4. Becoming Konohan Citizens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now they can start anew. Somewhat.

They had been at the tower for almost two days. Bouyo was not happy to be kept to one room, and had wanted out as soon as he realized he was being confined to one room. There was a bed, a desk, a small sink, a hot plate with it’s accompanying small pot and frying pan, and a kettle. The adjoining bathroom had a shower, a sink, a toilet, toilet paper, and all the small complimentary shampoo and conditioners, and bars of soap. There was no window. If Kagome didn’t know better, she would have said that they were in a hotel room. Their bags were piled up at the end of the bed, and both had shared the bed after a long shower, each knowing that their school uniforms were ruined. Kagome collected them. Perhaps, since this was a shinobi world, they had something they could use to get the blood out of the uniforms. Kagome hoped so. There were a lot of memories with that particular outfit.

Kagome had slept in quite late, if the clock on the wall was anything to go by. Which was to be expected, having used so much of her Horiki yesterday not only to fight the teke teke, but also to kill Naraku and destroy the jewel. Plus the exhaustion from loosing their family, and carrying and doing everything they did after that. She was amazed that she had lasted as long as she did. Both of them had been worn out. They’d slept a solid twelve hours after eating and showering. They’d gotten up today, and Kagome had fed the cat, and began making breakfast for her and her little brother. A simple breakfast of boxed pancakes that only needed water to be added to them, peanut butter and honey. She’d made them a bit thinner that normal, and rolled them after coating them with the spreads. She didn’t bring plates, so they had nothing to eat off of. They only had their hands.

Kagome did her best to take care of Souta. He had eaten, but not much. Normally he could down five or six pancakes. He’d barely eaten one, and she had to persuade him to do so. The dark blue o sadness, dark purple, and dark green f hurt and the grey of confusion made it apparent why. His grief rolled off him so heavily. Kagome didn’t feel like eating either, but had made herself eat three. She knew about surviving, and she would do it, push her own grief down and take care of her brother. She would be strong for him. He needed her more now than ever before. But most of all, he needed a distraction.

Kagome had felt when two of the guards that had been outside the office of the Hokage took up their posts by the door outside last night. She wasn’t sure of they were to keep them in, or just guard the door. One had left and moved back towards the Hokage’s office, and then returned. Kagome assumed that he was reporting that they were awake. The other one, a female, stayed at the door. When they had eaten, an had finished going about their business of getting ready for the day, the female knocked on the door. Kagome got up to answer it.

“Hi, is something wrong?”

“No, Higurashi-san. Hokage-sama wishes to see you and speak of your living arrangements. Both of you are to see him.”

“I-I see. We will be right out. Let us get our shoes on.”

“Of course, Higurashi-san.”

After a minute or two, and Souta hopping like a one-legged cricket, one shoe on, the back of the other folding under and getting stuck under the heel, they both appeared in the door, and locked it behind them. They made their way to the Hokage’s office, flanked on both sides by apparently high-ranking shinobi with white porcelain masks depicting animals on them. There was a green and red cat mask on the male, and a blue mouse mask on the female. Kagome wore a plaid blue and yellow dress that flared at the waist and fell to her knees. Over top of that, she wore a blue short sleeve cardigan. Souta was wearing a light blue button down, and a pair of jeans. 

They made their way up to the Hokage’s office, and the silence around them was strained. Kagome could see that one of the Shinobi beside her was really curious, the Cat mask one’s aura was filled with the light green-orange, as the Hokage’s had been last night. The female couldn’t care less. Her aura was the very haughty dark green she had come to associate with Sesshomaru, Koga, many of the warlords in the feudal era, and the more intelligent yokai that were able to hold a decent humanoid form.

They were ushered into the office right away. Like yesterday, the Hokage had dismissed his guards from the windows. His aura held the contented light blue-green mixed with the new growth green of happiness. He had several papers on his desk, and was reading the history book she had given him yesterday. Beside him, he made notes in a work book of his own. He was only a quarter through the text book. It was the introductory one from the last year Souta had passed. He seemed enthralled with the book before him. Kagome’s face went red. She didn’t think he’d like something like this so much. Perhaps she should give him the rest of the history books afterwards? It’s not like they had any use for them anymore.

“Ah, excuse me. This material is incredibly enthralling. I must thank you for something so wonderful to read. Now, I have called you here to arrange your living in Konoha as a citizen. I know you did not tell me everything yesterday. You could not have. You said this journey took three years to complete, and that you are from a different world. There was one thing I did pick up on, however.”

Kagome frowned. She hoped it wasn’t anything bad.

“As you said this book is devoid of all the yokai you mentioned, and very filled with skepticism. I would like you to compile and tell me as much about yokai as you can. Consider it a writing project and a way to earn some money to live off of. In this world, information pays well. I hope it will be helpful to you. Even things like armor designs would be of great use. Perhaps you have some items that would be useful here if they were replicated. You could set up a business, or sell ideas and live off of the royalties.”

Both siblings looked at each other. There were a lot of things like that. Kagome saw this great opportunity. 

“I think there are quite a few harmless things that we can share, like some of the instant and quick food stuffs we have in our bags. I can easily give you information on yokai. Are there any in particular you’d like to hear about more?”

“Yes. In this world, there are nine tailed beasts. Each more powerful than the one before it. I would like to know how your world’s same yokai compare if you have them.”

“Sure thing. Um, what about my being a Miko? Would that be helpful? I know Souta has already started to develop powers as well, and I will need to make sure he gets training in them, so he doesn’t become a danger to people around him.”

“Aw, Sis! I’ve already got all the homework your gonna make me do!” He tugged on her shirt for her attention.

“You need to finish your education, and it will be to my standards! I’m not letting you walk around ignorant of everything! Kaa-san would be disappointed in you if she knew! You also know how dangerous untrained powers can be! Look at me and my powers! I only just got a handle on them because Miroku taught me, and then I memorized the steps for after so I could train myself. I badly hurt Shippo accidentally when I was trying to protect him! You know better!” She turned from him with her nose a touch turned up, and her tone was one of no nonsense.

“Yes sis.” He muttered dejectedly.

Hiruzen smiled. They were definitely a family. They loved eachother deeply. It was plainly obvious, and it made him happy that at least they had each other. He hoped it would be enough. He had a feeling that these two and their otherworldliness would make many changes. He hoped they were for the better. Light purple filtered into his aura.

“Yes, I believe that information would be incredibly useful, as both of your bloodlines may produce others with your abilities. If this gets within a shinobi line, then I wish to have the information to help those children who need it. Regardless, you two need a place to live. So I have assigned shinobi to help you with such. It is standard procedure to have anyone with powers or shinobi abilities watched for a while. I am going to give you an allowance each month for now, There are other things I will require from you, like what exactly this ‘Horiki’ can do. I am assigning you two ANBU guards who will help with the collection of information, items, and anything else you see fit for us to have, and for your protection. I do not wish Danzo to have you. He would not care that you are a citizen of Konoha now, he would only see your origins, power, and bloodline as things to be bred into shinobi for himself. If you need to ask me questions, or arrange deals, this can be done through correspondence, and the observation of my shinobi. Feel free to do as you need. My shinobi may ask you questions, merely because they do not know much.”

“I see, um, well about that…. One of the things about Horiki that you should be aware of with the both of us, I already have this, and Souta will grow into it. Horiki also gives the holder a high spiritual awareness. That means that I can see all of your auras, and all their identifying markers. So far, no one has tried to hide their aura. I can see everyone. It’s a passive ability that cannot be turned off.”

“Ah, I see. Mouse, inform other ANBU members that it’s fine for her to know who they are, it’s not her fault. Inform them why. Do it after all this is handled.”

“Yes Hokage-Sama!”

“Now, if you are able, can you explain what an aura means in your world? It’s obviously different than what it means here.”

“Well, everyone has a soul, correct? They need one for their bodies to operate. What no one realizes is that a soul, just like every other living creature, gives off an aura, a halo, or energy. This energy is different from everything else, because it doesn’t use the other weird energy I feel everywhere. You called it chakra yesterday. If anything, it fuels it. This pure energy that I feel, the energy that comes from the soul, that’s what I see, what I feel. I can even identify emotions and different combinations of them. There was so much curiosity in you yesterday at the beginning of my past. By the end of it, you were filled with worry, sadness, and a tinge of hope. Today you are content and happy to be going through my world’s history books, and a bit of hope filtered in too. The gate guards, the were a mix of wary caution, and worry. Cat is highly curious about us, and Mouse has no interest. A little haughty actually, as examples for you Hokage-sama. With time, Souta will feel and see it as well.”

Cat choked and then covered it with a cough. And tried not to scratch the back of his neck, as a mixture of light pink embarrassment, and awkward yellow and purple colored his aura. Mouse grew flippant orange brown, and red-orange annoyed. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you Cat. Sorry. I didn’t mean to annoy you Mouse. I’ll find a way to make it up to you.” And she smiled at them. Cat subtly swallowed.

‘She’s really pretty..’ Under the mask, his face grew red, and he nodded. Mouse sniffed, and looked away, but a tinge of curiosity filled the much less annoyed aura now.

Hiruzen’s eyes went wide and a small smile lifted the corners of his mouth. “Well, that’s certainly something that can be both a curse and a blessing. All the ANBU mask their chakra, and yet, it’s as though they’ve done nothing of the sort to you then?” Kagome nodded.

“They will still follow you, again to watch you both. They will leave questions for you to answer. Cat, you are assigned to Kagome specifically, and Mouse, you are assigned to Souta. Keep them safe if something should happen that may be threatening.”

A simultaneous “Yes Hokage-Sama!” from both of the shinobi beside the two siblings was heard in the office.

“I have had my assistants gather a list of places available for rent. Ones within the allowance I am assigning you. I am also giving you a start up. Do not worry about selling anything from your previous home. Save it, you will need something to furnish your apartment. I am assigning a guide to help you find an apartment.”

“You are very generous, Hokage-Sama!” Kagome gave a bow. Then she reached over and shoved her brother’s head down. He protested for a moment at the rough treatment. A slight red-orange filtering in amongst the grief in his aura.

“Think nothing of it. You will need these documents as well. Keep them safe like your previous citizenship documentation.”

Kagome stepped forward and gathered the medium sized envelope from Hiruzen. She could feel certificates, books, and cards inside it. He also handed her the list of apartments, and a pouch of money.

“If I may, Hokage-Sama, That textbook is the start of the books used in my world. I have others, more advanced and detailed ones. In particular, the trench wars were particularly lengthy, if I remember correctly. They were also pretty gross. Soldiers had feet soaking wet for so long that they started to rot while the soldier was still alive.”

Hiruzen blinked. “That sounds unpleasant, but I am very much interested in these books.”

Kagome could see his thirst for knowledge, and his love of learning. He reminded her of Miroku, just a little. She nodded. 

“Sure, not like we have a use for them anymore.” 

“This has been very enlightening. I look forward to learning more about your world today.”

Hiruzen smiled, and had them wait in the hallway. He needed to go over his options on who would be best suited as both their first friend, and a good guide. 

‘Hm, this should be interesting.’


	5. Green is Your Only True Color!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clan Higurashi is assigned a guide and come to call him friend very quickly.

Kagome and Souta did not expect a man with the thickest eyebrows they had ever seen, black hair in a very sharp bowl cut, tanned skin, very apparent cheekbones, and very much taller than Kagome by at least a foot walk by. He was wearing green, skintight spandex and bright orange leg and arm warmers with the sandals all the shinobi tended to wear under the leg warmers. Kagome just caught the symbol all the shinobi here seemed to wear at their heads usually, around his waist like a belt. The flack jacket that she saw on both the Hokage’s assistants, and the gate keepers she saw earlier was on his torso, and instead of being zippered shit, was left to hang open. The content blue-green mixed seamlessly with the new growth of happiness, and had veins of white and pigmented blue as his resting aura. Kagome hadn’t seen such in a long time, and she was happy to see it again.

When he was directed into the Hokage’s office, his voice boomed both across the office, and through the door easily.

“Ah, Hokage-Sama, You have summoned me? What can I do for you?”

Kagome and Souta looked at each other. 

_Who was that?!_

He did not leave the office, and his voice was hushed. About twenty minutes later, they were called back into the office. Their ANBU guards waiting outside the windows of the Hokage’s office. The Hokage had a warm smile on his face.The same content, happiness, and hope remained in Hiruzen’s aura.

“Kagome, Souta, this is Might Guy. I have asked him to show you around Konoha, and help you find the apartments on your list to see which one you would like to take. He can also introduce you to others. If you need anything, you can ask him, and he will either alert me, or help you himself. I have given him your file and story, as much as you could tell me yesterday. If you need to tell more of your story, do not be afraid to tell him. I know he is one of the best people you can talk to. He will be reading your file tonight, and will most likely have questions for you, if you don’t mind answering. It might even give you directions for where abouts to start your explanation on yokai.”

Kagome blinked, as did Souta. They turned to him, Souta went to give a handshake, while Kagome bowed.

“Hello, Might-san, I am Higurashi Kagome, and this is my little brother Higurashi Souta. It is nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you Might, Sir.”

Guy shook Souta’s hand, and bowed back to Kagome. “Ah, I can see how your youth has dimmed, and I do not blame you. It’s a hard thing to lose loved ones. I will do my best to help you through it, and help your former youthfulness to return, or I’m not Might Guy! Please just call me Guy, no formalities between my new friends and maybe even comrades to be!”

He struck a pose, with his thumb up, and his grin gave a sparkle at the end of his introduction, and promises. Kagome gave an awkward smile, and her nervous laughing had Souta looking up at him. 

“That’s so cool! How did you do that!”

Kagome’s head whipped to him. Souta had a genuine smile on his face. He thought Guy was cool. She melted at the genuine want to learn and model after this man. Her face was a mix of gentle happiness, relief, and gratitude. Tears pooled, but did not fall. Souta had a better hero to look up to. She knew this man was both honest, kind, and incredibly honorable. His aura was obvious and plain as day to her, his character shining through everything he did. He was true to himself, and he did not lie to anyone. She knew from this alone that he really would be there for them. She shot a look at him, her gratitude plain as day. The soft look he gave her in return with the gentle smile and the subtle nod was all she needed to know that she was welcome.

“I’m a shinobi. I can do a lot of things. But it takes a lot of training to get to where I am, and I started much earlier in age that you will if you decide to become a shinobi. I’m told that you have a different power source, and it’s not chakra.”

“Oh, uh, I’m not so sure about the shinobi thing. We come from a world of peace. We grew up without knowing how to fight at all. I wouldn’t mind him learning martial arts, but he has Saishi training to do instead of shinobi training. He needs to learn how to use his horiki, and to use it responsibly. Not that I don’t want him to choose what he wants to do, I just don’t want him to learn the lessons I did the way I did. They were very harsh. I just want the best for him, and I’m not sure the path of the shinobi would be that. I also wouldn’t mind learning more fighting techniques. If Hokage-sama and you are both alright with that, of course.”

“I have no issues with this. If we are attacked, you both may be the focus of said attack, or perhaps kidnapped. You are a new power in our village, and in this world there are many power hungry people who would do anything to gain power of any sort. It would be good if you could defend yourself from them. I believe completing your Miko training, and training your brother, and receiving physical and martial training from Guy would be incredibly beneficial to the both of you. Guy, start slow and easy. They are greener than most academy students.”

Guy’s eyes widened. “Yes, Hokage-Sama! It will be an honor to help them between missions.” Hiruzen smiled. 

“Guy, if you ever feel she needs more, or is required on a mission, you will see me.”

“Of course Hokage-Sama!”

“Dismissed.”

All three bowed, and left the office. Their shadows followed them from a distance.

* * *

  
They were walking through the market, a busy place, with lots of curious eyes and colors abound. People waved to Guy often, and he was always waving back. After about a half hour, they had left the market. Guy always made sure they walked at a steady pace. He made sure they had everything they needed to rent an apartment before leaving the tower.

* * *

Bouyo had taken and instant liking to him, and that said a lot to both siblings. Bouyo wasn’t the most social cat. He usually hid if there were other people beyond the family in the house. He hadn’t really been able to in the office, and had instead, pretty much glued himself to Souta, still rather angry with Kagome for putting him in the carrier.

“I’m going to help you move, I have a storage scroll that I will put your things into. Do you mind rounding up you little furry friend please? And anything else that you have unpacked here. Pack it back up.”

“Um, do you know of any products that we could use to remove a lot of blood and stains that have set in? We’d like to save our uniforms from school for sentimental reasons. Can’t do that if there’s dirt, blood, guts, and ashes all over them.”

“Sure, any of the dry cleaners can get it out, and it’s not expensive either. They are used by shinobi all the time. If you let me have the uniforms, I’ll take them to my dry cleaners. It’s no problem for me at all.”

“That’d be wonderful! Thank you very much Guy!”

“Not at all! Now let’s get packing!”

With a nod of their heads, the siblings began to round up everything they had unpacked for he night and morning they had stayed in the room. It took them all of twenty minutes to do so. Guy then easily hefted the bags onto an unrolled scroll, and with a flash of movement, and some energy their bags poofed away. He rolled the scroll up then, and took the cat carrier they had once again loaded Bouyo into, who was meowing again, not wanting to go to the vet, or so he thought. Souta’s aura changed bright orange wary with a hint of sharp white and dark green.

“Uh. What was that? Where are our bags?” Souta was watching with wide eyes.

“Yeah, how did you do that?” Kagome was curious. She knew he wouldn’t steal from them. It would go against everything in his nature to do so.

“Ah, a storage scroll can store a large amount of things, or heavy items so you don’t have to lug it everywhere. It helps prevent theft as well. They can’t steal anything if it’s all in a scroll. I used a series of handsigns and my chakra. It’s a jutsu most shinobi use.”

Kagome blinked a minute. “Well that’s got to be super handy. I wish I could have done something like that during my travels to the past in my world. I would have brought a tent and more than a pot to cook on.” Guy had questions, but also had yet to read the file the Hokage had given him. 

Guy smirked and pocketed the scroll, before turning to the door, the two siblings following him out the door, locking it and returning the key to the assistants at the desk. That left them to where they were now.

* * *

“May I see the list of apartments you were given, Kagome? I need to know where we are going if we are going to get you a youthful apartment to live in and recover from your ordeal. I would recommend one near me, but I doubt you could afford that right now.”

Kagome’s faced flushed, and she handed the list over, and told him how much the monthly allowance was. Bright green and yellow filtered into his aura, and it took her a moment to realize that he was amused at her expense.

“Would you happen to know what I could do to earn a little more, just temporarily until I can find a definite way to make money myself that isn’t going to disappear from one day to the next?” Guy regarded Kagome. He knew she wouldn’t make Souta work, even though that would most likely be incredibly beneficial to them.

“Well, I cold ask around for you. I’d like to know where your living first, so your not having to walk three hours each way to your job.”

“That’s practical. Are any of these apartments near each other, so we can visit a bunch in one area instead of walking all over the place, and all day?”

“I think I can do that. Lets see, the closest ones are over by the bath house. There’s five there. After that there are some on the other side of the youthful market place, and those apartments are in a lower end of town, but they are close to everything you need.. The last few are closer to the gates.”

Kagome looked at Souta. “What do you think, squirt? The ones by the bath house are okay in price. The ones by the gate are a bit higher, and far away from the market, and the smaller markets would be more expensive over there. The ones over here are the most affordable, and leave us with more money for food, and things like toilet paper, and bills. But it’s in a not so good end of town.”

Souta thought about the options. “What’s in each area? Are there places to work nearby? What would you recommend Guy?”

Guy smiled at Souta. “Well, by the gates, there are the village walls. I would not recommend there, because if there is an attack, or someone plans to kidnap either of you, it would be easy and quick to get in, and out. For an attack, if you need to evacuate, your the farthest from the shelters behind the Hokage monument. You can’t move like shinobi, or it’d be no problem for you. 

The apartments near the bath house are closer to parks, the Shinobi Academy, and the Akimichi clan’s compound. Across from it is the Yamanaka compound. There’s lots of training areas around there for the nearby shinobi and academy children training to be shinobi. 

The places near the market are the closest place to any job opportunities for you, Kagome-san, and maybe even you, Souta-san. There are quite a few jobs that you could do, and they’d be quite suited for you too. Beyond that, just south of the area is a training ground as well. There are a lot of orphans in that area that have left the orphanage so they can become shinobi. I’m sure they’d be willing to help you out with directions if you get lost. Beyond that, some Genin live there too. 

This area has a youthful community garden, and would benefit greatly from someone who could care for it better than what is there right now. There are several places with yards, most of them are either unused, or turned into makeshift training areas, dummies and targets set up there since there aren’t any in the training fields. Those are more for practicing shinobi skills, like hiding, or different jutsu that are most likely extremely destructive. If you’ve got things like that to practice or figure out, it’s away from people, and very open. Just come find me. In fact, I have a youthful genin team, and we do have a training field we train at often. Your welcome to use the field with us for your youthful abilities. We will probably be training there anyways.”

Kagome and Souta nodded. “Sounds like the apartments by the market would be best to try first then. We don’t need anything big, do we sis?”

Kagome smiled at him. ‘He figured it out.’ 

She ruffled his hair. “Sounds right, good job squirt. There’s lots for us to do over there, and not so much in the other areas. Let’s check them out first. We aren’t picky, so long as everything is clean, works properly, isn’t infested with anything, and no mold, we are pretty much happy.”

“Hmm, I have a few suggestions then. These two have a not so great landlord, but these two have less space. You need a two bedroom, and this lady is the only one who has them with what you mentioned earlier. The other places are bigger, but the landlord is known to not pay the electricity bills, so the heat and lights get shut off which allows stuff to grow in the corners, and under the counters. Keeps you guys from being able to cook too. Depends on what your looking for. I think we should look at these two lady’s places, before deciding though.”

“Sounds good! Souta, aren’t you a little excited? We are getting a place of our own!”

“Yeah, but I wish we didn’t have to.” He looked sad again.

“I know, Souta. I wish it wasn’t so either. But we don’t have a choice. We have to make the best of what we have now. Everything in the past is gone. I’m sorry Souta.” He sniffled and nodded.

Kagome grabbed his hand, and started following Guy, who had turned away from the scene to give them some privacy, so they wouldn’t get lost. Souta started to focus on where he was going when he almost tripped on a stray rock on the street. 


	6. The New Landlady

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A cat lover Landlord is gained and some shopping are done before the day is out. Guy stays and helps them set up their new apartment.

Three hours later found the trio standing in front of the last apartment they were going to look at. The other three had been just as Guy said. Infested with pests, no electricity, moldy, or not enough room for two people. The owners had not really given much care that their places were uninhabitable and dangerous. They needed two bedrooms. If they were both the same gender, one room would be fine. But they weren’t. They needed two bedrooms. Then they had to go shopping. They had to get things they would need to live in the apartment. They knocked on the door that the listing said the Land Lady lived in. The content aura behind the door turned orange-red, and orange brown. Annoyed and flippant. She looked unimpressed when she opened the door, dressed in lounging style clothing, and a house coat. She had fluffy blue slippers on her feet.

“Naruto, the plumbers are coming tomorrow! Stop- Oh, hello!” Her face turned into one that was far more pleasant than the flat look she initially wore upon opening her door. Her aura changed to honesty and contentment with a smidge of embarrassment. 

“Hello, Landlady-san! These two youthful siblings are looking for a two bedroom apartment to rent. Your listing said you had some available?”

“Yes I do, give me a moment to put some shoes on.” She shut the door for a moment, and the meowing of a few cats behind the door could be heard. Murmurs she made to the cats could be heard, and then her door opened enough to admit herself out of the door, and not the cats she had inside. She also had several keys in her hands, and she turned to them finally. 

“You need a two bedroom? The corner units are a bit smaller, so they are a little cheaper in price, but the center units have full balconies. I have a large yard that isn’t cared for, or being used for anything. Your welcome to it if you decide to take a unit here.”

“We definitely want to see them, if you don’t mind?”

“Not at all! Come along then!”

“Thank you, Landlady-san! These two will assuredly be happy with these apartments, the other ones weren’t so great.” Guy gave her his thumbs up pose and grin.

“I know, they are slum lords. They most likely would have made these two share with someone else. Which isn’t fair.” Guy frowned at that. Disgust colored his aura. 

“Indeed. They deserve better.”

“Everyone does, but then there are those who try to take advantage of others. The bathrooms here are communal. I recommend going late at night if your shy. It has stalls for both toilets and showers, and a communal tub for soaking. Please don’t put scents in it, there are some who are seriously allergic.”

“Not a problem, the only thing we have that’s scented is our cleaning supplies. We don’t have oils.” Kagome spoke up, knowing what they always bought and used.

“That’s a good thing.” The Landlady said

“Are pets allowed? We have a very well behaved fat cat with us. He’s really sweet, and he’s fixed.” Kagome motioned to the carrier that Guy effortlessly continued to carry.

“Yes, it would be hypocritical of me to say no. There is a lady a couple floors down with some birds, others have pet hamsters, rats, dogs, fish, and there’s even one tenant who has a ferret. Cute little fella.” This made Kagome smile. This lady was very much a good, caring and sweet person, even if she sounded a bit crotchety. It was mostly her voice, not her attitude.

“So we can bring Bouyo with us then. This is great! All the other places said no, even though Bouyo is a great mouser. He’s always brought us dead things as gifts, and very often.” Souta spoke up for the first time since they entered the building.

“Ah, he sounds like quite the sweetheart!” She cooed into the cage, and Bouyo began to meow and wail inside the carrier again.

“He is, and I’m surprised he managed to fall asleep in the carrier. He’s usually a total mess inside the carrier, since he thinks he’s going to the vet.” Kagome giggled at her fat cat’s antics, trying to give the Landlady the most pitiful and pleading eyes he could. Trying to get out of the carrier.

“He is a very youthful sweet cat, very friendly with me.” This made Kagome smile the biggest one she had yet. 

“Which says a lot about you Guy, he normally doesn’t take to strangers.” Clean happiness brightened his aura even more than it already was at the knowledge.

“Really? Well I really like him too. He’s very soft.”

They stopped in front of a door on the third floor, at the end of the hallway and the Landlady opened it up with one of the keys on her key chain. Inside was very simple. There was a small stove, with a sink, a small fridge, and a tiny counter. There were lots of electrical outlets in the place. This was a good thing. The kitchen only encompassed the one side of the room, and the living area was attached. There were four doors in the unit. The one by the entrance slid open to reveal a closet. The three took off their shoes, and checked out the rest of the apartment. There was a larger room, and a smaller one. Both had closets in them, small in size, but if organized properly, they could hold what they were needed to hold. 

The rooms themselves were spacious enough to be a bedroom, and located on either side of the apartment. Kagome nodded at this. Then she opened the fourth door, and was pleasantly surprised to find a small laundry area. The small appliance sat at the end of the tiny room, and had shelves for detergents, softeners, and stain removers. It was a pulse wash, with a spin dry on the one side to remove water. It was small and efficient. There was a space under the shelf that a small garbage could sit, along with empty baskets, and a small hanging line, most likely for underwear. This made Kagome happy. She then checked out the balcony, and as the Landlady had said, it was small. Nothing much could be done here, except maybe hang laundry, as was evident by the small pulley system that ran over it for clothes.

“May we see the larger one please? This is definitely a contender. None of the other places are anymore.”

The Landlady gave her a smile. “I know what you mean. Follow me please.”

Shoes were put back on, and they left the small apartment, heading to one of the center apartments. There was one on the forth floor, and one on the second floor. One faced east, and the other west. Both agreed that the morning sun was not as warm as the afternoon and evening sun, and checked out the one on the fourth floor.

Guy followed them, making sure that they got the best deal, since his presence alone could make others be more honest. It had helped the two before. A couple of the slum lords tried to increase their price when they saw that it was two orphaned siblings on the Hokage’s monthly allowance, so the unit cost the entire allowance. Guy made sure that the Landlords knew he was watching, and willing to report extortion to the Hokage. It’s what made them turn away from those places the most. Kagome knew they would try to increase the rent illegally, and did not want to live in a place that wasn’t worth what they were paying for it. 

This apartment had slightly bigger counters. The fridge was full sized, and the laundry room had a small fold down table in it to fold laundry on. The balcony was as long as the apartment was, and not only had a laundry line, but it also had shelves left from the previous tenant. The bedrooms were bigger, and had larger windows and closets. There were shelves that would serve as a linen closet if they chose this place. The living area was a little bit wider as well, since both bedrooms were on one side of the flat, across the small hall from each other. 

After looking about the place, Kagome looked to Souta, he had a smile on his face, and he nodded at her. Light purple and little sparks of bright green mixed through his aura, and she smiled and ruffled his hair. This place was perfect. 

“The other unit you saw was 59, 400 yen a month. This unit is 61, 200 a month, both are all inclusive.”

Kagome and Souta looked at each other. That left them a good 37, 106.18 yen left for what they needed each month. Plus they had their start up. Kagome smiled at the Landlady. 

“That’s perfect. This is just what we need. Is there anything we need to sign?”

“Ah, let me get the paperwork. How old is the boy? I need to know for legal purposes whether he is a dependent or legally a tenant.”

“Oh, I just turned thirteen.”

“Dependent then, I’ll be right back with the paperwork. I assume you have identification on you?”

“Yes, we have everything.”

“Splendid!”

She disappeared into the hallway, and Guy finally spoke up. “Do you need help bringing things back to the apartment? Like beds and mattresses? You’ll need a table too. And a lot of other things. Maybe we should make a list?” 

Kagome nodded, and began pulling out the identification items she’d need, and counting out the money needed for the month. Guy’s usual green aura got even more green. He was happy for his new friends.

“We will, and we should.”

“This will be quite the long day. It is good that my youthful students have it off.”

Kagome blinked at him. “Well, I’m sure we will end up meeting them eventually, won’t we?”

“I wouldn’t bereft you of such a youthful experience! They may be able to help you as well!”

“Well, I hope so. We don’t know anyone else except you, Guy. It would be nice to get to know other people. Maybe make friends. We could thank the gate guards too, and tell them to visit maybe?”

Guy’s face looked like he had seen something terrifying, and his aura reflected it with the dark blue and grey of shame, and the dark blue of sadness, and the yellow orange of worry. His booming voice scared the two siblings, Souta hiding behind Kagome, but when his words registered, they relaxed a little.

“I AM TRULY YOUR ONLY FRIEND HERE? THAT IS UNYOUTHFUL! I WILL RECTIFY THIS IMMEDIATELY! I WILL NOTIFY THE GATE GUARDS YOU SPEAK OF TO INTRODUCE THEM TO YOU, AND HELP YOU MAKE MORE FRIENDS!” 

Kagome covered her ears, as did Souta, and they both took a step back from him. Guy noticed this. Kagome gave a nervous laugh and held her hands up in a placating manner.

“A-ano, I am sure you will, but do you think it could wait for a little bit while we get settled? We have a lot of shopping to do, and then we have to put it all away, and put stuff up. We also need to get fresh food, and some gardening supplies. I want to grow things on the balcony.”

“Oh, that’s a great idea sis! You can make the plants grow faster with your horiki!”

“That’s the plan, so we don’t have to buy fresh stuff often. The most we have to buy is rice and meat. We can use the extra money from that to buy stuff to make preserves for winter, since it snows here, right Guy?”

“That it does. The idea of you making your own preserves is a youthful one indeed! Where did you learn?”

“Oh, Kaa-san was a stay at home mom, and she had a lot of time on her hands. She made all of her own preserves. The basement was always full of pickled everything, and lots of jams, jarred sauces, and all kinds of dried foods.”

“Yeah, she made the best jams and pastes.”

“It’s a good thing grabbed all the recipes then, isn’t it?”

“You did!?” 

“That sounds wonderful, Higurashi-san! Please let me know if you need help! I’m always willing to help such youthful friends!”

At that moment, the padding of the Landlady could be hard coming back down the hall, and Kagome headed over to the counter in the kitchen. Everyone headed to the counter, and the explanation of the rental agreement was made, money exchanged hands, identification was viewed, and verified. Within twenty minutes, Kagome and Souta had keys for the apartment, and the Landlady left to go upstairs to change her apartment listing numbers. Kagome turned to Souta, and squealed as quietly as she could. 

“Congratulations, You have your first youthful apartment!” 

Then Guy laid his storage scroll on the ground, and summoned their bags. He also let the cat out of the carrier, and Kagome immediately set up his litter box, food, water, and toys. Then both siblings squabbled over who got what room. Guy laughed at them. This was a good thing. He wasn’t expecting how mature the younger of the two was, however.

“Souta, I need the bigger closet, I have more clothes, I have weapons, scrolls, and lots of Miko stuff, I need the bigger closet!”

“Just cause your older doesn’t mean you get all the good stuff!”

“You don’t even have as much as I do! I need the room, you little shrimp!”

“Mom would give me the big room!”

“No she wouldn’t, she would have taken it for herself to keep us from fighting! Besides, I need a desk in my room so I can write down all the stuff the Hokage wants, and take care of bills!”

Souta froze at that. “Oh, your right. I keep forgetting that. I should get a job too. Mom would want us to help eachother. I don’t want to disappoint her. Or you.” His voice cracked, and his aura turned blue.

Kagome’s face morphed into sadness at this. She hugged him close to her, and tried not to cry. 

“Mom would be real proud of you for saying that, Souta. Thank you for leaving the big room to me. It’s a really mature thing to do.” Her voice was watery at the end. Souta’s voice cracked again when he started to cry.

Guy’s face softened. He pulled a handkerchief out of one of his many pockets, then offered it to Kagome, and patted Souta on the back. “I’m sure she’s watching you both with a smile on her face. Your both so brave to have gone through what you have. She knows you’ll both be there for each other.”

Both nodded and pulled away from each other. It was easy to hug Souta now. He was starting to sprout like a bad weed. He came to her collarbones now. His voice was beginning to deepen, and he was starting to get lanky. Kagome knew she would be buying him new clothes like crazy. She smiled at the thought. She motioned to the bags.

“Lets unpack some, at least sort what goes where before we go out and get the stuff we need. Let’s get to it squirt!”

“R-right”

Both moved back into the living area and began pulling their respective bags into their rooms, moving stuff back into the kitchen as was needed. Guy helped them compile a list of things they would need for their apartment. It was quite the list indeed. Both agreed that some lightly used furniture would be best, except for the mattresses. Those both needed to be new. A couple hours later, they left the apartment, the list of things they needed separated by which store they were to be bought in.


	7. Garden and Lunch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dinner plans for the next day and lunch are made.

Several hours later, and with Guy’s help, his mighty storage scroll, and a pause at a small food stand for a quick meal, the trio was back in the new Higurashi residence. They were unpackaging things, putting new furniture together that they couldn’t find second hand, and placing a small dining room table and a couch into the living area. Several bok shelves were purchased, along with a small scroll container for Kagome’s room. She had a used desk, and Souta got a small writing table for his homework that Kagome would be teaching him.

From there, they had gotten curtains, serve ware, bedding, and lots of soil, grow bags, small pots, plant food and seeds of all kinds. Kagome was excited to get started. They had also got a kitchen set for cooking food, and a few dishes for cooking in the oven. They were able to find two gently used bed frames, and had bought two new mattresses. They had spent the majority of the day unpacking all their possessions from their hurried packing of the house, and putting together new items, putting up curtains, and putting items away in new plastic drawers, and unpacking appliances. Microwave, kettle, coffee maker, toaster, steamers to go over pots…

It didn’t take too long to get the whole thing completely squared away. Guy was a huge help. Kagome had begun making a meal after everything was squared away. She would start the plants tomorrow. For now, the small amount of produce would be used in a stir-fry with some ground meat and wrapped in rice paper for some non-fried spring rolls. Simple, but delicious. 

Kagome use the whole container of rice paper wrappers. She wrapped so many of them. She was sure it would be enough for tonight. 

“Are you sure it’s alright to eat with you tonight? You really don’t have to.”

“It’s completely fine. I can use my Horiki to grow plans and vegetables. Here, I’ll show you. Can you set up that basil in one of the small pots please? I don’t want dirt in the food.” Guy did as he was told, asking how many seeds to plant in the small pot.

After he had watered it, and set it on the counter, she focused her energy into the small pot, saturating the seed. Within a minute it had sprouted. As it grew, it sucked up all the water very quickly, and she instructed Guy to water it again. Soon she had a miniature bush of basil ready for use, which she then picked several leaves, minced them and added to the fry she was making. Guy was impressed.

“Essentially, I only got vegetables for today. I won't need to get any tomorrow. I’ll have my balcony garden done by then. I can just pick what I need. So this is nothing. Please eat, these taste the best with soy sauce.”

Guy didn’t hold back. Kagome had made a lot. Where it took the siblings a total of twenty minutes to eat, it took Guy almost two hours to eat. He finished the remaining food Kagome had made. All three were stuffed when finished.

“How did you know that I needed to eat so much?”

“I had some friends that used spiritual abilities, creating huge devastating attacks. They were big enough to demolish half a mountain, and the army of enemies in front of said mountain. The amount of energy needed was a lot to do so, and thus the amount of food needed was quit a bit as well. I figured since you have something that is half reiki, and with the way you speak of training, as though it’s your favorite thing to do, that you need the calories to power your body so it functions correctly.”

Guy nodded at her, impressed again. ‘She’s full of surprises. Pleasant ones. I hope it stays that way.’ 

“Are you both alright for now? You’ve got to be tired after all that walking and shopping today, and then the unpacking.”

Souta looked like he was ready to fall asleep. Kagome giggled at him. ‘He’s going to go into a food coma! He looks so adorable. Thank you Guy for your contagious energy, getting Souta to eat a full meal.’

“I think we are good. I know Bouyo wants you to come back and see him. And we certainly wouldn’t mind either. Doing things has helped with not getting caught up in emotions. I think Kaa-san would be happy with what we’ve done. I think she and Ji-chan would be happy to see our apartment if they could. Thank you for all your help today, and your kind words. I hope my file explains things for you. Feel free to ask me questions. When I figure out what I can do for a job, I will see about doing some training as well. Just gotta finish setting up, you could say!”

Guy grinned. “How youthful of you, Higurashi-san.”

“Please, just Kagome.”

“Yeah, just Souta for me too.”

“Your too kind Kagome-san, Souta-san. I shall check up on you tomorrow then. I should be able to make a list of people looking for jobs in this area for you. Hokage-Sama will also want me to check out your powers when you go to practice with them. Perhaps we can arrange a time for me to observe you learning your powers tomorrow. In the evening perhaps, so you can set up and grow your garden? I could swing by with my students, and you could meet them then. We could go out for Yakiniku Q, my treat.”

Kagome looked at Souta. He nodded back at her. 

“That sounds great Guy! I could perhaps take a break and bring you all lunch, if I can figure out how to get there. I’ll be able to feel your aura, and find you that way, so long as I don’t get lost on the roads.”

“Ah, I can just send one of my students when we break for lunch.”

“Alright. I’ll make sure lunch is ready before I start gardening.”

“It’s a date then. Thank you for dinner. It was very much invigorating, and I hope to have it again. Your a good cook, Kagome.”

Kagome’s face pinked just a little. The compliment was incredibly flattering. “T-thank you Guy.”

She stood up and gathered all the dishes, and set them in the sink where she would do them momentarily. She just had to see Guy out for the night. He rubbed his bulging belly, and sat to put his sandals on, replacing the visitor slippers they had bought. 

“Thank you for today. For just a little while, we got a break from how heavy the coming days will be for us.”

Guy smiled at her. “Not a problem, Kagome. You can talk to me anytime. I’ll always listen.”

Kagome gave a shaky sigh. “I’ll hold you to it. Good night Guy. Your always welcome in our home.”

“Thank you. I’ll take you up on that. Good night, Kagome.” He left the house extremely content.

She shut the door, and turned to go start the dishes, only to see Souta halfway finished them already. She smiled at him. “Thanks Souta. I’m going to go see how much we have left, and if there is anything we might need later. I know I still have to get supplies to write about yokai. I’m also going to plan the garden for tomorrow, and then head to bed. Do you want to come with us tomorrow?”

Souta gave her a small smile over his shoulder. “I’m not sure yet. I may need some time to myself.”

“I understand Souta. I love you, and I’m just across the hall. Good night, I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Sure, night sis. Love you too.”

* * *

Souta tossed back and forth, cold terror filled him. The Teke Teke was there, trying on Kaa-san’s legs. She was actually managing to get them to work too. She was standing on them. Souta had to stay quiet, and get out of the house. He tried to get up but the blood was too slippery. Kaa-san’s blood. It was everywhere, he tried to roll to the side, but the Teke Teke heard him, and jumped off the legs to come after him. He couldn’t get up either, the blood was holding him in place. Kaa-san’s mouth started to move. Her skin went dark. It gained a blue tint, just like the Teke Teke’s. He could see his Ji-chan starting to move too. He closed his eyes tightly, scared of what the Teke Teke would do to him.

Finally he sat up and opened his eyes, only to find himself in a room he did not remember, at first. Then his memories filtered in, and his heavy breathing evened out. He knew he couldn’t sleep in his room alone. He moved to Kagome’s room. Opening her door, he moved into the room, and moved to crawl into the bed. Kagome rolled over and opened her eyes. Sharp white and dark green filled her vision. Seeing Souta, she blinked a moment before opening her blankets on her bed to him. He crawled in beside her. She was glad she had gotten the double sized bed. She expected this to happen. When he began to shake in terror, she began to sing softly to him, and comb her fingers through his hair. It took him a good half hour to calm down enough to be able to sleep again. She filled her room with her horiki. It helped Souta relax and sleep better. It kept his dreams away.

She was used to the dreams. She had learned long ago how to take control of them, how dream lucidly. It had proven far too useful for overcoming horrid situations, and traumatic events for her. Within a few minutes, she was sleeping again.

She didn’t see Cat and Mouse keeping watch over her silently. She had sensed them there quite a while ago, but they hadn’t moved. Simply kept watch over her.

* * *

Souta was still sleeping in Kagome’s room when she got up. It was about six in the morning. Still dark outside. She left her Horiki in the room, so Souta could sleep a little longer. She picked up her toiletry bag, some clothes, two towels, and made her way to the communal bathroom. Twenty minutes later, she returned to her apartment, hair wrapped in a towel, fully dressed, and ready to start her day. She started by making lunch. She pulled out several containers, bowls and began washing rice, then setting up the rice cooker, and starting the rice. Next she soft boiled some eggs, and made a concentrated tea. From there, she sliced up and fried some beef in a sweet-salty sauce, and boiled up some noodles. She peeled the eggs, and then set them to marinade in the cool tea she had made.

She pulled out some dashi stock, miso paste, tofu and wakame seaweed. She began assembling the miso soup, then fried the noodles and added them to the beef. Next she sliced up and grilled some salmon, then flaked it, and set it aside. She pulled out Nori, mirin, soy sauce, eggs, SPAM, and crunchy lettuce. The rice cooker finally finished cooking, and she poured it onto a large plate to help it cool faster. The miso finished, and she immediately transferred it to a thermos. She left the beef and noodles in the pan. While she waited for the rice to cool, she started on the SPAM onigirazu. She fried several eggs individually, and set them aside. 

She then sliced the SPAM carefully, into thin sheets. She fried this with a mix of soy sauce and mirin. She carefully leafed the lettuce. She cut several nori sheets in half, and began assembling Onigiri, carefully salting her hands before handling the rice and flaked salmon, wrapping them completely with nori, and then plastic wrap. These went onto a plate as well. She then layered rice very thinly on a full sheet of nori, laying two pieces of SPAM, fried egg, and then lettuce, before adding the last thin layer of rice. She wrapped the nori over the whole thing. Plastic wrap was her best friend with this particular food. 

Next she carefully measured out some tofu, sweet rice flour, and sugar. She mushed these into a dough, separated them into three portions, then mixed matcha powder into on portion, strawberry powder into a second and left the third alone. She started a large pot of water to boil, and pulled out some bamboo skewers to soak in some water. Then she started making little dough balls, making sure there were enough of each color to match with the other two. When she was finished this, she carefully dropped them into the boiling water to cook. She prepared a bowl of cold water in the sink with a constant trickle of cold water in it. When the little dough balls started floating in the water, she scooped them out, and into the cold water.

When she was waiting for them to cool, she organized all the food into bento style containers. The Miso went into a large thermos to keep it hot. She packed one Onigirazu, Onigiri, a portion of beef fried noodles, two tea eggs, a set of chopsticks in each container, bento style, and then started on a pitcher of iced tea. She put all the bento into the fridge, and then in a large reusable bag, she packed cups, bowls, and napkins. She then pulled out the last container needed for lunch, and started skewering the little dough balls in a pattern. Green, white, pink. Into the container they went, and then into the fridge. 

‘I hope they like Hanami Dango.’ Kagome thought. She then grabbed a bowl from the cupboard, and poured herself a bowl of cereal. 


	8. Garden and Gear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kagome grows her garden on her balcony, and Cat is shown some things she wishes to make deals with for Hokage. Several useful things.

She ate breakfast for a break, then did the dishes, and cleaned the counter, dried her hands, and went out onto the balcony. She organized bean poles, growing supports, trellises, and cages. She filled grow bags and small pots with soil, lining some with clay beads, and others with sand. She then planted a few seeds of each variety she had bought the day before, and watered them well. She prepared the next batch of water for when the plants had sucked it all out. She sat out on the balcony.

“Cat? Mouse? I am about to use my Horiki to do some growing. Would you like to be closer, where it’s easier to see?” She could feel the curiosity in the male called Cat. He surprised her by walking on the wall, along the balcony, and then standing beside her. 

“Jeez, I think I’ll be locking the windows too from now on. I didn’t know people could do that here!”

Cat snickered silently, but Kagome saw the bright green and yellow of amusement in his aura, and subtle shaking of his shoulders. She patted the space beside her. He sat at her invitation. Kagome smiled at him before closing her eyes in concentration, and letting her Horiki gently and carefully flow from her, directing it into the little seeds before her. 

They felt like little pinpricks of life, waiting for the right moment to flourish. She guided her Horiki into the little pricks of life, and encouraged them to swell, to increase, and begin. Within a few moments, sprouts began to form. The lettuces and herbs were first. Then the beans and peas, carrots, tomatoes, beets, and radishes. She felt the onions and garlic grow every so slowly, as it always did. The squashes finally came through the surface, and the sweet peppers, the strawberries blasting to full growth the moment the sprouts hit the air. As everything bean to really grow, and get bigger, Kagome paused. The soil was dry now. She needed to water it again, and add nutrients. She mixed the plant food into the huge watering can she had bought, and started to soak the soils of the bags, pots and lines of planters.

Several buckets of water were mixed with liquid plant food, and then poured into the dry soil. After about twenty minutes of watering everything, she sat down again, and began encouraging everything to grow again. Cat was awed by the ease in which she did this. Within a couple hours, she had fully grown, beautiful plants bearing loads of vegetables and strawberries.

This was very much getting reported to the Hokage.

“Cat, in my world, the soil quality was very poor. My people were the shortest in the world, because of undernourishment, which went back through multiple generations. Thousands of years in fact, because of how poor the soil condition. Crops failed easily, plague and famine were everywhere, and with the constant wars being fought by feudal lords, all villages were shorthanded. The only reason the amount of people who did live on through those times were because of Miko, Saishi, and Hoshi, doing as you just saw me do, but for huge areas, spreading their powers as far as they could, encouraging mountain vegetables and crops to grow, to not fail. 

We grew all kinds of plants. Everything we could grow, we did. Animals need to eat too, and in turn, they were hunted for meat by both humans and yokai. Literally all the life in my country depended on Miko, Saishi, and Hoshi. Well, until we discovered hydroponics, and then later figured out how to get aquaponics going, then taking advantage of vertical space, as you can see here, since I put all the plants that like partial sun under the squash, and everything that likes sun vertically, with the bigger standing plants in the corners and edges of the balcony. All my herbs will be done in a bit.”

“You said you have to spread your powers as wide as you can to grow things. How wide is that?”

“Uh.. Well, I didn’t have a chance to see how wide I could get, since we always visited villages that were tucked away or on wide crop fields, and we usually passed through them very quickly. Always looking for the next jewel shard, chasing rumors of Naraku, or looking for a new power for Tessaiga to harness. I never got much of a chance to actually try. It’d be neat to see how far though. Miroku said that I had the largest and most potent pool of Horiki he’d ever felt. Even his guardian, the Monk Mushu said he’d never felt anything like it. I might just bring the community garden to a better standard. It should help the community. I know Souta will help me if I need it. Maybe some of the other kids in the neighborhood would be interested in learning how to garden.”

“You could ask your shinobi guide.”

“Oh, we’ve asked enough of him for a little bit. I’ll give him a break. Maybe tomorrow. Today is for meeting his team, and him seeing where I am training wise.”

“What else can your energy do? I know you used it last night on your brother.”

“Oh, it can help sooth fear and anxiety. For Souta, my power feels like a pure version of myself, and it feels like safety for him. So I kept him wrapped up in it to keep him from having nightmares. I know he will dream of the Teke Teke, but if I can delay it, it will help both his conscious and subconscious mind process and move through it. When he no longer needs my help, the dreams will be minor, and he will be able to sooth himself and go back to sleep. Since he is getting Horiki himself, I will be able to teach him how to dream lucidly, and defeat Teke Teke himself in his dreams. Miroku told me the steps to gaining control. From there, I taught myself how to form weapons of my power in my dreams to defend myself from all the monsters that I’ve faced in the past, during my task of gathering all the shards of the jewel. It’s been a huge help.”

“That sounds incredibly useful. Many shinobi suffer from nightmares and night terrors, reliving the painful things of their past. Having the ability to stop them and defeat the situation would be incredibly healing for them.”

“Hmm. That’s a good idea. If I can teach Souta, maybe I can figure out how to allow you guys to use your reiki separately in your minds while you dream. It would definitely be a good thing, since healing is part of a Miko’s duty. I will think on this particular option further. But enough of that, Souta will be getting up soon, and I have some questions for you. I have items from my world that I am willing to part with so you can re-create them for use here. All the food items from my world, the quick ones especially. I noticed that there were quite a few things that I could offer. Do you think it’d be a good idea? I was thinking of getting like maybe 1% of the profits of them being sold. A lot of them are quick and can easily be made over a small fire, of which, I have something else to show you.”

She got up and entered her flat, before gesturing for him to follow her inside. 

“Some of these are open, I grabbed all the dry non perishables from the house before I had to… and I figured we could make them in the past and use them up so they weren’t wasted. But I think this world could benefit from quick meal things like this.”

She pulled out a box of hamburger helper, macaroni and cheese, the pancake mix she had used yesterday, and other quick foods, food products like shake’n’bake, liquid smoke, and even some oven cooking bags. She then pulled out different cooking gadgets, and finally the thing she thought would be the most helpful to Shinobi out on the road.

“This..” And she layed what looked like a flat, odd piece of metal with hinges onto the small table in the livingroom. It was about four and a half inches by three and a half inches when folded flat.

”Is a compact stove, and it fits in your pocket. It was used to heat small things like a cup of water or a small pot to make food in.” She then pulled out the multiple boxes of fuel out.

“This is the fuel that goes with it. It burns clean and hot. The amount of light it makes is small. This is used in my world by people who often go to areas far from a city, but have no time to really set up a tent, or actual fire pit. It’s also great for using in controlled areas when the vegetation is really dry. It lessens the risk of starting a forest fire, since this stuff doesn’t emit sparks. It blows out like a candle if your done using it. Search and rescue groups in my world benefit greatly from this when it’s cold out. A mug of hot tea in the freezing cold does a lot to help you maintain your body heat for a good long while. It’s also a great tool for sterilizing filtered water. I’m sure there are tons of uses you could use for it too.”

Cat picked it up and looked at it, quickly figuring out how to set it up, and then examined it. He took out a sheet of the blister-packed fuel, and looked it over as well.

“Do you mind showing me this?”

“Sure.” 

This item was what he was looking at with the most interest, his curiosity bright and a tinge of excitement, the light orange just tinging the curiosity, so she must have something that could potentially be incredibly useful here. She pushed the little tab out of the blister pack, stuck it on the flat area on the bottom of the little stove. Then she turned and filled a small pot of water.

“I’ll make some tea on it. I’ve used this little stove a lot.”

She placed the pot on the stove, and carefully lit the fuel with practiced hands. It caught right away. Within a couple minutes the water was steaming, and within five it was boiling. She blew the fuel out and put the loose leaves into the pot, and then pulled out a couple mugs.

“This is incredibly convenient. It’s perfect for those who don’t know any fire jutsu, students just learning about being shinobi, and subtlety on missions, yet hot food can still be made. It has medical uses as well. In extreme cases, wounds may need to be cauterized. This would be a good tool to heat metal, and it’s clean. You don’t need to heat it over dirty coals.”

“Do you think the Hokage would be willing to cut a deal on this?”

“This is from your world, and you the one letting us replicate it. I am sure he would be happy to give you a big cut of the profit this would generate from the shinobi populace alone, nevermind the use merchants and civilians would also buy it for. The fact that you have clean burning tablets, and quite a lot of them, will also not go unnoticed. The tabs themselves would generate a lot of income for you. You will not need to work a job for long if you let us replicate this alone. The food stuffs are also easy and convenient. If you are willing, I will take them and see about replicating them. Is there anything else you can offer?”

“Your welcome to look at all my old camping stuff. I left it in my bag. Gimme a second, I’ll go get it.”

The lifestraw, and multitools caught Cat’s eye, but when Kagome explained how useful neoprene ponchos were, he had a good look at that too. Keeping your but, sleeping bag, or back dry could save lives, it could be used in the rain, and it could be used to wrap up small wood piles to keep them from getting wet so there was a good fire starter if it ended up being really damp. 

“The multi tools were super useful for doing all kinds of small tasks around camp, pulling out things you can’t normally get to with your fingers, or handling hot things. The cooking rack has fallen into the fire more than a few times, or Inu Yasha tossed something of Shippo's into the fire when he was being a jerk. He loved doing it when Shippo was minding his own business, practicing his magic. He’s been sat repeatedly for that. I’ve use it to make cooking skewers, skin animals, the bear claw one was great for butchering and cleaning small animals and fish. The lifestraw has been a huge part of my travels. My companions ended up with their own straws after we came across a river that had corpses stuck far upstream, and everyone was getting sick from drinking the water. They found that it filtered out the small sediments that could leave some nasty tastes in the water they were drinking from too. It also helps keep the micro organisms and parasites that could kill you out of your water. You just need to change the filter every once in a while. I have extra filter that can be reverse engineered.”

Kagome then opened a small pocket on the side of her bag, and pulled out a tiny square.

“This is a portable blanket. It is puncture resistant, waterproof, and it can be staked to the ground by the corner tabs. Oh! I have this awesome double walled stainless steel cup. It keeps things hot or cold for hours”

She grabbed it out of the cupboard, and showed him.

“It has a special neck, and a pop-on valve on top, keeps it from leaking when it’s turned upside down. This was originally designed for toddlers. You suck on the edge anywhere, and you’ll get liquid out. It just ended up being so useful as a reusable tumbler for all kids of things to drink, that adults started using them too. You can throw this across a room, or drop it from a couple stories up, and it won’t break. The entire thing is super easy to wash, and it can be used by anyone.”

She took the cup apart. There was a large valve, a easy-clean neck, and the cup itself. Cat picked up all the pieces, and examined them. She then filled the cup with hot tea, and assembled it. 

“Here, test it out for today. It’ll still be hot in ten hours.”

“This has a lot of potential too. Both civilian and shinobi can use this. It would sell well amongst the masses.” His voice sounded impressed, and his aura spoke of his surprise. “Thank you. I will do so.”

“No problem. I thought it would be a good thing to have more of. That cup is my favorite. I use it all the time. It’s found the most uses among teenage students, teachers, office workers, and campers.”

Kagome felt Souta’s aura change from the relaxed sleep, indicating that he was waking up.

“If I can think of anything else that might be useful, I’ll let you know. But Souta is waking up. His aura is beginning to expand to what it normally does when he is awake.”

She put all the items into bags for him, and he used a storage scroll to hold everything, except the cup. 

“The outside isn’t even hot. This is definitely a good cup.”

Kagome smiled. “Enjoy your day, Cat-san. I hope it’s not too strenuous or boring to follow me around.”

Cat nodded at Kagome before disappearing in a swirl of leaves, his aura appearing back on the outside of the wall on the balcony. Kagome sighed, and pulled out the broom to pick up the leaves. Then she poured a bowl of cereal for Souta, leaving the milk beside the bowl for when he got back from the bathroom.


	9. Team Guy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kagome finds that Neji is rather rude, and she doesn't blame him much. I mean, that seal would make her cranky too.

Souta was amazed to see his sister growing herbs upon returning from the bathroom. He could smell them very quickly. 

“Sis, the apartment smelling like this is gonna make me hungry all the time. You know that right?”

Kagome turned to him and laughed. 

“You’ll live. Besides, I plan to dry most of these, so it won’t be that bad. Grow my own spice cabinet.”

Souta snorted with a smirk on his face. Then poured the milk into his cereal, and proceeded to shovel it into his mouth. Kagome shook her head and put the milk away. Souta sat back and sighed when he was done. He rinsed his bowl and left it in the sink. One dish wasn’t enough for a load of soapy water. Then he grabbed some clothes and his toiletry bag, and a towel. He was stopped by his sister.

“Souta, we are going to be tested for what we need to learn to fight today. You need to wear something you can really move in. Go pick out some different pants, no jeans, and a baggy t-shirt, not a button down.”

Souta blinked, and promptly turned around to his bedroom. Kagome shook her head at him. He returned a moment later with some jogging pants, and a baggy white shirt. Kagome nodded her approval, and let him head to the showers. Kagome went out to the balcony, and picked out some vegetables she would try to pickle later. She needed to make sure she could do it right. Hopefully mom’s recipes would turn out when she tried her hand at them. She took out one of the cards and read it to see what was needed.

‘I need to go to the market again. I don’t have any pickling salt, and I need pectin and a lot more sugar than what I have. I also can’t grow cinnamon trees.’

Kagome made a list. Then she went to go change into clothes appropriate for fighting. She chose a flared skirt with some shorts underneath, a tank top, long socks, and she switched from a regular bra to a sports bra. She made sure her running shoes were out. Souta returned, just as Kagome was putting her hair up into a high tail. She grabbed her bow, and hoped the shinobi knew where to get more arrows for this sort of bow. She set it by the door, and then grabbed a sweat band for Souta. She slipped it on his head and carefully pulled the hair out from under it. She stood back to look him over. At her smile, he smiled too. But his eyes were shadowed. He was fully dark blue again.

“You don’t have to go today Souta. Guy is fine assessing you and teaching you later. It’s okay if you want to stay here and be by yourself. Well, Bouyo is here too. He’s under your bed. I can sense him. He’s chasing a spider.”

Souta nodded. “I don’t know yet. I don’t want to be alone, but I don’t want to go anywhere.”

“Well, how about you come with us today, have lunch and then sit on the sidelines for a while. I can start showing you some things needed to harness your Horiki. Meditation might be a good way to start. It will give you time to think through everything that is happening, analyze it, figure out how you feel about it, and help you come to accept what you can’t change, and then give you the right way to change what you can. Kaa-san always said that you can’t control the world, but you can control how you react to it.”

Souta smiled at his older sister, light purple peeking through the dark blue. “I think I can do that. Thanks sis. Your great, you know that?”

She smiled gently at him, her own sadness reflecting in her eyes. 

* * *

A few hours later, Kagome felt a new energy walking up the side of the building. It was male, young, calm and bitter. There was something nasty attached to it. A really nasty seal. It had to be grating and painful. It was a little older than Souta. But it wasn’t evil. She monitored the movement, and when it neared their balcony. She felt his surprise at all the plants. She went and opened the door, just as a young boy was about to knock. 

“Hello! You must be one of Guy’s students sent to guide us to the training field we are using today. Let me put today’s lunch into a bag, and we will be ready to go. I made enough for everyone. I’m Higurashi Kagome, and this is my little brother Higurashi Souta.”

Souta bowed at the introduction. He stared at the boy. He had never seen anyone with pupiless eyes that could still see before.

“Guy-sensei said that you had just moved in yesterday. How do you have a fully grown garden on your balcony already? And what is this energy I can see and feel in you? You don’t even have tenketsu. What are you?” The boy’s tone was very sharp. He wore a off-white short sleeved shirt held closed in the front by a zipper, and three wide straps over it. It had a thick, high collar that protected his neck, and two pockets on the short sleeves that mimicked the straps in the front in appearance. He wore a pair of long black shorts, and his right side looked like it was all wrapped up under his clothes. He wore a holster on his right thigh as well, the white bandages over his shorts to make a place for the holster a dead give away. He wore the same sandals that Guy had, and the leaf Hita Itae on his forehead with a strap meant to connect under his chin hanging loose. His skin was pale, his dark brown hair emphasizing it’s paleness, just as his light lavender eyes did. They were pupiless. 

Kagome raised her brow at him. 

“I was not expecting someone so rude to know Guy-san. Nor was I expecting an interrogation or a really nasty curse seal on his head.” Neji’s eyes widened. 

‘Guy-sensei did say she could see everything differently. But how was she able to see through the Hita Itae?’

“I am Hyuuga Neji. I am here to guide you to the training field. I was not expecting you to have lunch prepared. Please excuse my rudeness. And please tell your brother to stop staring at me.”

Kagome blinked and stiffened, the turned to Souta and whacked his arm. 

“Stop that, it’s rude!”

Souta’s concentration was broken, and he realized what he had been doing, and was caught. His face flushed in embarrassment, and his aura reflected it. “S-sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude!”

Kagome sighed. “What am I going to do with you, huh squirt?” She shook her head, and turned to the fridge.

It took her all of a couple minutes to place everything into the bag, and pour the contents of the tea jug into several bottles before locking the balcony door, and heading to the front door to slip on her running shoes and grab her bow. Souta followed suit, and all three left the apartment, locking the door behind them.

* * *

A half hour later, they arrived at the training field with the rest of Guy’s students. Kagome smiled at Guy’s greeting. 

“Ah, Kagome! It’s good to see you again! You slept well, and grew your garden I hope?”

Neji’s head whipped to Guy. ‘He knew?’

“Ah yes. I would wave back, but this picnic is heavy. Souta has the iced tea. I hope there is enough for everyone. I made a lot. Lots of calories for you all to power your bodies. Oh, I wasn’t sure if you wanted to see my abilities, so I brought my bow. We also wore clothes we can move in if you want to assess us.”

“Ah, how Youthful of you! Let me take that heavy bag for you. These are my youthful students, and they are excited to meet you.” He took the heavy picnic bag from her, she gave a nod in thanks, and he moved to the edge of the clearing to put it down.

“ I am Rock Lee! It is a great honor and pleasure to meet a such an esteemed, wonderful, youthful Lady as you! Guy-sensei spoke very highly of you!” More green spandex, green happiness, and light green and range curiosity filled Kagome’s vision, along with the orange leg and arm warmers, the same black hair in a shiny bowl-cut, more thick, bushy eyebrows, and an excited, yet honest and earnest face. After Kagome got over the very exuberant greeting, she giggled.

‘His outfit matches his aura! That’s rare!’

“Hello Rock-san, it’s nice to meet you. I am Higurashi Kagome. This is my younger brother, Souta. We have only arrived in Konoha yesterday, so please excuse us if we aren’t familiar with much.”

“Don’t worry, we are youthful guides to Konoha! We shall help you find your way, and make you feel welcome!”

“That sounds wonderful! Thank you Rock-san!”

“Please call me Lee, and consider us friends!”

“Same goes for you, just Kagome then!”

Souta piped up. “Yeah, please just call me Souta, It’s nice to meet someone close to my own age.”

“WE SHALL BE THE BEST OF FRIENDS!”

Lee grabbed Souta around the shoulders. “We will do everything together! If Guy sensei says it’s fine, then we will train together!” Souta’s face looked incredibly uncomfortable. He had no idea what to do in this situation. Kagome giggled at him. 

“Lee, we need to be assessed by Guy-sensei. We are not shinobi. I am Miko, and Souta will be Saishi in training soon. Guy-sensei will be teaching us physical combat. He is also curious about my horiki and what it can do.”

“Horiki?” Neji asked quickly, voicing the question all three had.

“Ah, yes, Kagome-san’s special energy. She does not have chakra. This next part you must keep secret. They will both ask questions normal people will not, because they are from a different world. I must say Kagome, your story is quite the heavy one. I am very curious about the rest of it, if your willing.”

Kagome smiled at him. “I think I would like that, Guy-san. Now, there is one face I still don’t know. Miss, what is your name? It must be hard to get a word in edgewise.” 

Kagome’s kind smile made Tenten smile herself. 

“Hi! I’m Tenten. It’s nice to meet you Kagome-san, Souta-san” Souta bushed. His aura turned a light pink, and Kagome knew he would like Tenten right away. 

“S-Souta is fine, please.”

“Likewise here, Tenten-san.”

“Sounds good on my end too, Kagome, Souta. What did you make for lunch, by the way? I’m starved, and a bit excited to have a home-cooked meal”

“She made a few things. There is onigiri, some sort of weird rice-nori square, beef fried noodles, dango, miso soup and iced tea.” Neji commented as though he was discussing the weather.

“You can see through objects?” was heard simultaneously as “You have x-ray vision?” from the Higurashi siblings.

Neji glared at Souta, and he shrank back.

“I am not an x-ray machine. The byakugan can see through almost anything, and quite far away. It gives me three hundred sixty degree vision, along with the ability to see the chakra system, and all 361 tenketsu points in the body” Kagome blinked.

“You sound like one of the super heroes from a comic in my world. But he had super strength, skin like steel, and could fly.”

Neji blinked at her. Kagome could tell he was annoyed, his aura taking on a slight orange tinge.

“That hero was very much loved across the globe if it helps. I’m not saying you are him, just that some of your abilities are similar to his. He didn’t have three hundred sixty degree vision, couldn’t see energy movements like you, and he was from another planter entirely. He couldn’t see through lead.”


End file.
